THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE 

GREGG  REPORTER 


BY 

JOHN  ROBERT  GREGG 


1909 
THE    GREGG    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

NEW    YORK  CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1909,  by  John  R.  Gregg. 


T 


CONTENTS 


PART  ONE 

Page 
Preface     V 

Court  Reporting 

By  W.  E.  McDermut 1 

Pithy  Pointers: 

Preparation  for  a  Case;  Proper  Names;  Repeti- 
tion ;  Explanatory  Words ;  Size  of  Notes ;  Ma- 
terials; Q's  and  A's;  Marking  Exhibits;  What  to 
Read ;  Making  Captions ;  Where  to  Practice ; 
Some  Good  Suggestions ;  Interrupting  a  Witness ; 

Securing  Appointment   10 

The  Judge's  Charge 

By  W.  E.  H.  Searcy 20 

Official  Reporters '  Qualifications 

By  H.  W.  Thorne 22 

Dictation  Machines  and  Court  Reporting 

By  James  E.  Munson 26 

The  Work  of  the  Court  Reporter 

By  Charles  Currier  Beale 31 

Methods  of  Furnishing  Daily  Copy 

By  Frank  IT.  Burt 35 

Reporting  the  National  Conventions 

By  G.  Russell  Leonard 42 

Indexing  Notes 47 

Law  Forms 48 

Table  of  Rates  Paid  Court  Reporters 49 

Helpful  Books 50 

448574 


7  //  /•      (,  A'  /•  G  C     RE  P  O  R  T  I-  R 


PART  TWO 

Special  Word  Forms 53 

Word  and  Phrase  .Modifications .V> 

Figures,  Etc (>•"> 

Short  hand  Numerals,  Etc 67 

Encircling  Outlines,  Etc 69 

Points  of  the  Compass,  Etc 70 

Special  Phrases 72 

List  of  Phrases 74 

Plates  of  Testimony: 

Court  Testimony — Exercise  on  Phrases its 

Testimony  in  Life  Insurance  Investigation 10.") 

Key  to  Plates  107 


PREFACE 

OR  some  time  there  has  been  a  well-defined   de- 
mand for  more  literature  relating  to  court  report- 
ing and  especially  having  reference  to  the  Gregg 
system.    As  time  has  gone  on  this  demand  has  be- 
come more  and  more  insistent,  until  I  have  been  obliged 
to  lay  aside  matters  of  considerable  importance  in  order 
to  prepare  this  book. 

There  is  a  dearth  of  helpful  literature  in  permanent 
form  dealing  with  the  technical  features  of  court  report- 
ing. In  the  shorthand  magazines  and  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Reporters'  Associations  there  have  appeared  from 
time  to  time  brief  articles  explaining  the  duties  of  the 
court  reporter,  but  in  book  form  there  is  absolutely  noth- 
ing of  value  dealing  with  the  technical  or  shorthand  part 
of  the  work.  Commenting  on  this  in  the  Typewriter  and 
Phonographic  World,  an  experienced  court  reporter  says : 

I  have  been  a  student  of  shorthand  since  I  was  a  small  boy, 
have  looked  Into  quite  a  number  of  text-books  in  quite  a  number 
of  different  systems,  read  many  shorthand  periodicals,  made  "  pot 
hooks"  for  a  living-  for  the  past  six  or  eight  years,  and  for  the 
past  year  have  been  holding  down  with  more  or  less  success  a 
position  as  official  court  stenographer.  During  all  of  this  time  I 
have  been  impressed  with  the  scarcity  of  shorthand  literature 
directed  to  the  training  of  court  stenographers.  I  know  of  but 
one  book  upon  the  shorthand  part  of  the  subject,  and  that,  while 
exceedingly  helpful,  makes  no  pretense  of  being  exhaustive.  There 
are  excellent  works  on  phrasing,  but  their  scope  is  general.  The 
dictionaries  contain  exhaustive  lists  of  phrases,  but  it  is  a  heart- 
breaking task  to  dig  from  the  text-books  and  dictionaries  the 
particular  phrases  suited'  to  court  use.  Of  course,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  phrasing  will  enable  a  careful 
student  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  in  time;  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  an  interchange  of  actual  experiences  and  expedients  which 
experienced  court  reporters  have  found  useful  through  the  col- 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


uinns  of  the  World  would  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  beginner 
In  that  brancli  of  the  art,  and  even  the  old  veteran  might  be  able 
to  get  Ideas  that  would  lessen  the  burdens  of  his  old  age. 

This  book  is  divided  into  two  parts : 

Part  One  is  intended  to  be  a  succinct  explanation  of  the 
duties  of  the  court  reporter,  supplemented  by  suggestions 
condensed  from  numerous  articles  that  have  appeared  on 
the  subject  in  shorthand  magazines.  This  portion  of  the 
work  is  not  exhaustive,  and  is  not  intended  to  take  the 
place  of  that  admirable  book,  "Practical  Court  Report- 
ing," by  H.  W.  Thorne,  which  we  commend  to  every  one 
who  desires  to  become  a  reporter.  It  does,  however,  pre- 
sent the  essential  features  of  court  reporting  in  a  concise, 
helpful  way,  and  we  believe  that  the  suggestions  given 
will  be  of  value  to  stenographers  desirous  of  familiarizing 
themselves  with  the  duties  of  the  court  reporter.  But,  as 
has  been  well  said  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Luzenberg,  "The  only 
place  to  learn  how  to  swim  is  in  the  water,  and  the  best 
place  to  learn  court  reporting  is  by  practicing  in  court 
after  the  shorthand  foundation  is  laid." 

Part  Two  is  the  most  important  portion  of  this  book, 
containing  as  it  does  the  most  comprehensive  and  prac- 
tical list  of  shorthand  forms  for  law  terms  and  court  re- 
porting phrases  that  has  so  far  appeared  in  any  system 
of  shorthand. 

Those  features  of  Gregg  Shorthand  which  have  gained 
for  the  system  its  widespread  diffusion  and  popularity 
render  it  peculiarly  adapted  for  difficult  and  technical  re- 
porting. The  absence  of  distinctions  of  meaning  between 
characters  written  light  and  the  same  characters  written 
heavy,  between  characters  written  on  the  line  and  the 
same  characters  written  above,  through,  or  below  the  line, 
between  a  hook  written  small  and  the  same  hook  written 
large,  between  characters  of  four  or  more  different 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


lengths,  between  vertical  and  slanting  characters — the 
absence  of  these  and  many  other  fine  distinctions,-  so  diffi- 
cult to  observe  under  the  pressure  of  rapid  note-taking, 
is  nowhere  of  more  importance  than  in  court  reporting 
where  liberty,  property,  and  even  life  itself,  often  depend 
upon  the  accuracy  of  the  report. 

The  marvelous  powers  of  condensation  and  the  easy 
natural  phrasing  power  of  the  system — so  well  recognized 
and  so  easily  demonstrable  in  the  everyday  work  of  com- 
mercial correspondence — are  even  greater  when  applied 
to  law  terms  and  especially  to  testimony. 

Since  I  began  the  preparation  of  this  book  I  have  noted 
with  much  pleasure  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of 
writers  of  Gregg  Shorthand  who  have  secured  appoint- 
ments as  official  reporters.  In  addition  to  those  holding 
official  positions,  several  young  writers  of  the  system  have 
recently  established  themselves  in  the  independent  report- 
ing business,  in  Chicago  and  elsewhere,  with  most  gratify- 
ing success. 

I  sincerely  hope  this  book  will  be  of  assistance  to  those 
who  are  already  reporters,  as  well  as  to  the  many  writers 
of  the  system  who  are  ambitious  to  become  reporters.  It 
would  give  me  pleasure  to  assist  writers  of  the  system  by 
advice  and  suggestions,  and  I  hope  to  hear  from  many  of 
the  readers  of  this  book. 

In  sending  forth  this  book,  I  wish  to  express  my  ap- 
preciation of  the  assistance  given  me  by  court  reporters 
and  expert  writers  in  preparing  it — especially  in  compiling 
the  list  of  phrase  forms— and  to  Miss  Lilian  M.  Belfield  for 
the  remarkable  fidelity  and  artistic  skill  with  which  she 
has  written  the  illustrative  shorthand  cuts  and  plates. 

JOHN  ROBERT  GREGG. 
New  York,  June,  1909. 


PART  ONE 


COURT    REPORTING 

By  W.  E.  McDermut 


(Reprinted    from    The   Gregg-   Writer) 


QUALIFICATIONS 

ERTAIN  mental  and  physical  qualifications  are 
necessary  in  order  to  fit  one  to  be  a  successful 
court  and  general  reporter.  The  physical  strain 
is  so  great  that  only  persons  with  good  health  and 
strong  constitutions  should  undertake  the  work;  in  fact, 
only  such  persons  stay  at  it  very  long.  The  higher  class 
of  work  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  musician  always 
playing  difficult  music  at  sight ;  and  any  one  can  imagine 
how  exhausting  such  effort  must  be  when  continued  for 
three  to  five  hours  at  a  sitting. 

Without  a  good  education  and  a  general  knowledge  of 
the  world,  the  work  will  never  be  satisfactory,  either  to 
the  reporter  or  to  the  public.  No  knowledge  or  experi- 
ence will  come  amiss  in  the  work  of  the  reporter. 

In  order  of  importance  I  should  place,  first,  a  thorough 
mastery  of  the  language,  with  an  extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  oddities  of  expression  peculiar  to  various  classes 
of  people ;  second,  a  wide  acquaintance  with  literature 
and  history;  third,  a  smattering  of  many  sciences  and 
arts,  especially  familiarity  with  their  terminology ;  fourth, 
a  good  working  knowledge  of  at  least  a  few  of  the  leading 
sciences,  especially  medicine  and  mechanics ;  fifth,  a  wide 
reading  in  the  fundamentals  of  the  law. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


of  ;i  mechanical  trade  will  be  very  valuable 
in  reporting;  testimony  of  mechanical  experts;  a  knowl- 
edge of  bookkeeping  will  make  the  work  of  reporting  ac- 
countants easier;  a  familiarity  with  machinery  and 
physics  will  enable  one  to  understand  scientific  experts. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  few  court  reporters  receive 
their  training  in  the  shorthand  schools;  not  that  the 
schools  cannot  give  them  a  good  start,  but  circumstances 
have  been  such  that  the  writers  have  generally  drifted 
into  the  business  in  various  ways  independently  of  the 
schools. 

Whether  the  writer  has  gone  through  a  school  or 
studied  by  himself  he  should,  if  possible,  serve  an  ap- 
prenticeship with  some  first-class  court  reporter,  improv- 
ing every  opportunity  to  increase  his  knowledge  and 
technical  capacity.  While  it  is  well  to  begin  young,  there 
are  few  who  can  be  regarded  as  fully  competent  court 
and  general  reporters  under  the  age  of  thirty  years. 

In  addition  to  these  requirements,  integrity,  fidelity, 
sobriety  and  indiistry  are  essential  factors  in  a  successful 
career  as  a  shorthand  reporter.  Those  who  cannot  come 
up  to  the  standard  above  outlined  should  keep  out  of  the 
business. 

SPEED   REQUIREMENTS 

Having  the  personal  qualifications,  the  student  should 
remember  that  as  shorthand  is  the  tool  with  which  he  is 
all  the  time  working,  he  should  strive  to  obtain  a  more 
and  more  complete  mastery  of  the  art.  It  is  estimated  by 
many  old  reporters  that  within  their  experience  the  av- 
eniLre  requirement  in  reporting  capacity  has  increased  be- 
tween twenty-five  and  fifty  words  a  minute. 

The  rush  incident  to  modern  business  methods  will  not 
tend  to  reduce  the  rate  of  speaking  in  the  future.  As  the 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


requirements  will  be  more  severe,  it  is  certain  that  the  re- 
porters of  the  future  must  be  superior  to  those  of  the 
present.  The  rate  of  speed,  of  course,  varies  according  to 
the  character  of  the  matter.  Simple,  idiomatic  language 
is  spoken  more  rapidly  than  technical  exposition  or  digni- 
fied discourse.  Moreover,  after  a  spurt  of  broken  English 
or  indistinct  utterance  time  will  be  lost  in  untangling  the 
sense,  and  the  writer  must  have  a  possible  speed  that  will 
enable  him  to  catch  up.  This  requires  the  most  perfect 
mastery  of  the  writer's  system. 

The  better  the  condition  of  your  tools,  the  easier  and 
more  certain  will  be  your  work.  If  possible  your  methods 
and  system  of  writing  should  be  so  perfect  that  another 
writer  may,  in  case  of  emergency,  be  able  to  dictate  from 
your  notes.  Therefore,  whatever  system  of  shorthand 
you  write,  write  it  scientifically. 

PEN  OR  PENCIL 

There  is  a  diversity  of  custom  as  to  the  use  of  pen  and 
pencil.  If  you  have  an  official  position,  with  a  table  where 
you  regularly  work,  there  are  many  reasons  for  using  a 
pen ;  not  merely  a  fountain,  but  a  steel  pen.  The  act  of 
dipping  for  ink,  if  done  habitually  at  every  pause  or  op- 
portunity, will  usually  keep  the  pen  loaded,  while  the 
execution  (with  a  proper  combination  of  pen,  ink  and 
paper)  is  so  superior  and  the  manipulation  so  much  easier 
that  the  advantages  derived  are  very  important.  If  this 
combination  cannot  be  secured,  a  good  fountain  pen  or  a 
good  pencil  just  suited  to  the  writer's  hand  and  to  the 
paper  may  be  used,  according  to  the  deliberate  preference 
of  the  writer.  "Where  the  writing  must  be  done  under 
unfavorable  conditions  a  pencil  will  generally  be  found 
more  serviceable. 

The  table  or  desk  and  the  chair  should  be  heavy  and 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


firm,  and  the  surface  of  the  table  should  be  flat.    A  small, 
solid  chair  is  better  than  a  large  one  or  one  that  swings. 

THE  REPORTER'S  PLACE 

By  all  means  insist  on  a  location  where  you  can  see  and 
hear  at  least  as  well  as  any  person  in  the  room.  Never 
allow  your  back  to  be  toward  the  speaker  for  any  con- 
siderable time.  The  reporter  is  to  "be  seen  and  not 
heard,"  and  he  should  never  "take  a  back  seat"  for  any- 
body. In  the  courts  in  the  large  cities  there  are  so  many 
disadvantages  in  the  way  of  noise,  confusion,  haste,  care- 
lessness and  broken  English,  that  even  the  most  perfect 
location  will  still  leave  the  writer  laboring  under  many 
difficulties. 

PROPER  NAMES 

Learn  to  write  proper  names  in  shorthand.  A  legible 
shorthand  outline  is  much  better  than  a  name  written 
illegibly  in  longhand.  "Browne,"  in  shorthand,  with  a 
longhand  "e"  to  show  the  peculiarity  of  spelling,  is  better 
than  the  name  written  out  in  full. 

If  necessaiy,  break  long  and  composite  names  into  sec- 
tiofts;  this  will  preserve  the  identity  of  the  parts  of  the 
words  and  prevent  the  hand  from  getting  beyond  control. 

Never  lose  a  firm  grasp  on  the  sense  of  what  you  are 
reporting  and  its  bearing  on  the  whole  case.  Many  a 
jumble  of  sounds  may  be  interpreted  in  words  or  phrases 
sounding  the  same  but  having  directly  the  contrary 
meaning,  and  only  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  subject 
will  prevent  the  reporter  from  sometimes  making  non- 
sense, especially  after  a  rapid  spurt. 

Keep  up  with  the  speaker  as  closely  as  possible  without 
interrupting  a  thorough  understanding,  so  as  to  secure 
the  best  outlines  and  phrases;  yet  it  is  highly  important 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


to  cultivate  the  power  of  carrying  long  passages  in  the 
memory,  as  this  will  enable  the  writer  to  make  up  for  the 
cases  of  lost  time  that  now  and  then  occur. 

IN  THE  COURTROOM 

A  law  court  is  somewhat  like  a  debating  society ;  one 
side  maintains  the  affirmative  of  a  proposition,  the  other 
side  the  negative.  There  is  this  difference,  however,  that 
an  evenly  balanced  presentation  of  the  two  sides  in  a  de- 
bate would  leave  the  question  undecided,  while  in  a  law- 
suit the  negative  side  wins  unless  the  affirmative  produces 
the  greater  weight  of  evidence. 

In  a  lawsuit  one  side  (the  State,  or  a  corporation,  or  a 
person,  under  the  name  of  the  People,  plaintiff,  com- 
plainant, petitioner,  etc.)  brings  an  accusation  charging 
a  person  or  corporation  with  a  crime,  injury  or  threatened 
injury,  as  the  case  may  be. 

THE  PLEADING 

The  various  papers  by  means  of  which  the  case  is  finally 
prepared  for  trial  are  called  pleadings,  and  consist  of 
indictment,  complaint  (or  declaration),  answer,  reply  or 
replication,  rejoinder  and  surrejoinder,  and  some  others, 
together  with  possible  demurrers  by  either  side  at  any 
stage  of  the  preparation  of  the  case. 

The  essential  points  on  which  a  case  turns  are  called 
the  issues.  After  the  issues  are  settled  the  case  goes  to 
trial,  and  generally  before  a  jury. 

THE  JURY 

The  persons  called  on  the  jury  are  examined  by  both 
sides  to  determine  their  fitness  to  serve.  Either  side  may 
arbitrarily  ("peremptorily")  reject  a  certain  number, 
and  if  just  cause  exist  in  the  case  of  others,  any  number 
may  be  "challenged"  and  excluded. 


6  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

It  is  the  province  of  the  judge  ("the  court,"  as  he  is 
usually  called)  to  determine  in  this,  as  in  all  other  cases. 
whether  the  objection  is  well  founded,  and  either  side 
not  satisfied  with  the  action  of  the  court  in  this  or  any 
other  ruling  may  take  what  is  called  an  "exception,"  to 
be  passed  upon  later  by  a  higher  court  in  case  of  appeal. 

After  the  jury  is  selected  the  members  are  sworn  to  try 
the  case.  Usually  the  attorneys  on  both  sides  then  make 
opening  statements  briefly  outlining  the  evidence  they 
expect  to  offer.* 

Up  to  this  point  the  reporter  may  or  may  not  make  a 
full  report  of  all  that  transpires,  depending  on  custom  or 
special  request. 

THE  EVIDENCE 

Next  the  evidence  for  the  plaintiff  is  introduced,  and, 
of  course,  must  be  fully  reported.  Evidence  may  consist 
of  oral  testimony,  or  of  books,  papers,  depositions  or  other 
documents.  Frequently  evidence  offered  or  questions 
asked  may  be  objected  to;  the  court  rules  on  the  objec- 
tion, admitting  or  refusing  the  evidence,  in  either  of 
which  events  it  is  usual  for  the  dissatisfied  party  to  take 
an  exception. 

At  the  close  of  the  plaintiff's  or  the  State's  evidence,  as 
the  case  may  be,  the  plaintiff's  attorney  or  the  prosecutor 
announces,  "The  plaintiff  rests,"  "This  is  our  case," 
"The  State  rests,"  or  something  equivalent.  The  defend- 


*In  this  opening  the  reporter  should  carefully  note  every  date 
and  every  material  point  that  is  made,  not  to  go  into  his  report, 
but  for  himself.  In  this  way  he  acquaints  himself  with  what  the 
plaintiff's  or  State's  case  will  be.  In  civil  cases  the  defendant 
generally  makes  his  statement  next,  showing1  what  he  exports  to 
prove.  In  criminal  cases  the  defendant  generally  waits  until  the 
plaintiff's  case  is  ended  before  he  states  his  case.  In  like  manner 
note  the  points  of  the  defendant. — W.  E.  H.  Searcy. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


ant  follows  with  his  defense  and,  after  he  has  rested,  the 
plaintiff  puts  in  additional  evidence  called  "rebuttal," 
sometimes  followed  by  additional  evidence  for  the  de- 
fendant, called  "  surrebuttal. " 

In  case  documents  are  offered  in  evidence  they  should 
be  briefly  described  in  the  notes  and  marked  with  some 
letters  or  numbers,  the  date  and  the  reporter's  initials, 
for  future  identification,  and  their  introduction  or  offer 
noted. 

Sometimes  the  reporter  is  required  to  take  down  the 
papers  as  they  are  read.  Unless  the  reading  is  done  very 
carefully,  the  reporter  should  compare  his  transcript  with 
the  original  documents,  as  the  reporting  of  matter  that  is 
read  to  a  jury  is  very  difficult,  few  people  being  able  to 
read  a  paper  in  a  manner  perfectly  satisfactory  from  a 
reporter's  standpoint. 

CLOSING  ARGUMENTS 

The  arguments  of  counsel  follow  the  evidence,  the 
prosecutor  opening,  the  defense  answering,  and  the  pros- 
ecution closing  with  a  short  resume.  The  judge  then  in- 
structs the  jury  as  to  the  law — the  jurors  themselves 
being  the  sole  judges  of  the  facts. 

It  is  extremely  important  that  the  charge  of  the  court 
even  though  it  be  written,  should  be  reported  with  the 
minutest  accuracy. 

"With  the  retirement  of  the  jury  the  reporter's  duty  in 
that  case  ends.  Often,  however,  he  is  called  upon  to  do 
collateral  work,  such  as  reporting  motions  for  new  trials, 
and  taking  depositions,  the  latter  being,  in  many  ways, 
similar  to  court  work,  though  on  a  minor  scale.  Attorneys 
are  more  than  formerly  in  the  habit  of  dictating  pleadings 
and  legal  papers  to  stenographers,  although  generally  this 
work  is  dictated  to  office  stenographers. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


MOTION  FOR  A  NEW  TRIAL 

After  a  trial  the  defeated  party  usually  makes  a  motion 
for  a  new  trial,  which  may  either  be  granted,  and  the  trial 
gone  through  with  again,  or  may  be  overruled,  in  which 
case  an  appeal  is  often  taken  to  a  higher  court,  for  which 
purpose  the  record  must  be  written  up.  Sometimes  in 
large  or  important  cases  the  record  is  written  up  from  day 
to  day  without  waiting  for  an  appeal.  In  such  cases  sev- 
eral reporters  are  required,  according  to  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  work  must  be  turned  out.  But  otherwise  the 
official  reporter  alone  usually  lakes  1h<>  case  all  the  way 
through.  There  is  an  advantage  in  the  latter  method,  as 
it  gives  the  reporter  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
case  and  makes  his  work  easier  and  more  certain,  since 
better  work  can  always  be  done  when  the  reporter  under- 
stands the  case.  • 

DAILY  COPY 

In  case  of  what  is  called  "daily  copy,"  the  reporter 
must  dictate  his  notes  to  a  typewriter  operator,  and  in 
case  of  a  great  rush  the  notes  are  dictated  to  two  op- 
erators at  one  time.  This  requires  the  highest  degree  of 
legibility  in  the  notes.  It  is  important  to  a  reporter  out- 
side of  a  large  city  that  he  be  a  good  typewriter  operator. 
A  first-class  machine,  kept  in  perfect  condition,  and  a 
thorough  mastery  of  the  machine,  are  worth  all  they  may 
cost,  and  are  second  in  importance  only  to  first-class 
shorthand  ability. 

THE  SHORTHAND  NOTES 

A  thorough  mastery  of  the  shorthand  system  enables 
the  writer  to  make  use  of  the  best  legitimate  devices  for 
securing  additional  speed  and  legibility.  Shorthand  is  a 
method  of  abbreviating  along  lines  familiar  to  the  long- 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  9 

hand  writer.  The  books  contain  the  most  useful  abbre- 
viations for  ordinary  work.  By  utilizing  these  principles 
of  abbreviation  the  careful  and  intelligent  writer  may 
adapt  special  abbreviations  to  particular  kinds  of  work. 

Often  a  case  in  which  a  number  of  long  or  awkward 
outlines  are  presented  may  be  made  easy  to  report  by 
adopting  temporary  abbreviations  which  for  the  time 
being  may  be  more  legible  than  the  outlines  written  in 
full.  This  applies  particularly  to  proper  names  and  pe- 
culiar terms.  The  writer  also  need  not  be  afraid  to  make 
use  of  bold  phrasing  devices,  provided  they  actually  con- 
tribute to  speed  and  legibility  and  are  felt  to  be  necessary. 

The  secret  of  legibility  is  securing  outlines  which  under 
rapid  motion  will  not  degenerate  into  forms  resembling 
others  that  might  be  used  in  the  same  connection.  Gen- 
erally two  outlines  representing  words  belonging  to  dif- 
ferent parts  of  speech  will  not  conflict.  The  aim  at  all 
times  should  be  to  obtain  characteristic  and  facile  forms. 


PITHY  POINTERS 


Preparation  for  a  Case 

Learn  in  advance  as  much  as  you  can  about  the  case 
you  are  to  report.  Get  the  title  of  the  case,  name  of  the 
judge,  and  the  names  of  the  attorneys  representing  the 
various  parties  to  the  suit.  If  you  find  that  the  trial  re- 
lates to  some  technical  subject  or  business,  it  is  well  to 
prepare  for  it  by  "reading  up"  on  the  subject  and  prac- 
ticing the  forms  for  the  difficult  or  technical  words. 

Proper  Names 

Be  sure  to  get  the  correct  spelling  of  all  names.  If 
necessary,  write  the  name  in  longhand  the  first  time  it  oc- 
curs, but  thereafter  it  should  be  written  in  shorthand.  It 
is  well  to  practice  writing  names  in  shorthand.  In  writing 
the  names  of  witnesses,  be  sure  to  note  whether  they  an- 
called  on  behalf  of  plaintiff  or  defendant,  by  writing  in 
shorthand  after  the  name  "for  plaintiff"  or  "for  de- 
fendant." Do  not  write  "Mr."  in  taking  notes,  but,  of 
course,  supply  it  when  transcribing.  When  a  witness  lias 
been  sworn  put  down  his  name  on  a  memorandum  sheet, 
together  with  the  number  of  the  sheet,  or  page,  of  your 
note-book  on  which  his  testimony  begins.  Then,  when  oc- 
casion arises  during  the  proceedings  to  look  up  the  evi- 
dence, you  will  not  have  to  go  through  one  or  two  note- 
books for  the  testimony  of  that  particular  witness. 

Repetition 

Very  often  a  witness  in  answering  will  repeat  the  ques- 
tion, anfd  when  this  is  done  indicate  the  repetition  by 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  11 

writing1  the  ordinary  ditto  marks,  which  do  not  represent 
anything  in  shorthand. 

Explanatory  Words 

In  reporting  testimony,  where  explanatory  words  are 
added  by  the  reporter,  the  words  so  added  should  always 
be  placed  in  parenthesis.  Examples :  Q.  Did  you  ever 
see  this  (handing  paper  to  the  witness)  ?  Q.  How  long 
was  it?  A.  It  was  about  as  long  as  that  (pointing  to  the 
courtroom  table). 

Size  of  Notes 

An  accomplished  reporter,  writing  on  this  subject,  says: 
"Acquire  the  habit  of  writing  neatly  and  compactly. 
This  conduces  to  speed.  Large  sprawling  outlines  have 
the  opposite  tendency." 

The  argument  that  small  characters  produce  a  cramped 
action  of  the  hand,  and  hence  result  in  loss  of  speed, 
while  a  large,  free,  swinging  style  carries  the  writer  for- 
ward with  "leaps  and  bounds,"  thereby  enhancing  speed, 
was  effectually  controverted  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

The  faster  the  speed,  the  larger  the  characters  written, 
will  be  admitted  by  experienced  reporters.  They  will  also 
allege  that  the  cultivation  of  a  small  style  will  counter- 
balance the  impulse  to  "spread  out"  under  pressure. 

Materials 

Always  use  good  materials — note-book  of  the  best  qual- 
ity with  marginal  ruling,  a  good  fountain  pen,  and  the 
very  best  pencils.  Mr.  A.  C.  Van  Sant  says:  "Every 
court  reporter  should  have  two  good  fountain  pens  and 
see  to  it  that  they  are  kept  well  filled  and  properly  cleaned 
and  cared  for,  that  they  may  be  depended  upon.  As  a 
further  precaution  he  should  have  several  sharpened*  pen- 


12  THE.    GREGG     REPORTER 

cils  of  good  quality,  so  tluit  should  the  pens  fail,  he  may 
have  the  pencils  to  fall  back  upon." 

Q's  and  A's 

The  vertical  line  down  the  left-hand  margin  of  the  note- 
book distinguishes  the  question  from  the  answer.  The 
question  should  begin  to  the  left  of  the  vertical  line ;  the 
answer  should  always  be  written  to  the  right.  It  is  per- 
missible to  begin  the  answer  on  the  same  line  on  which 
the  question  ends  if  a  well  defined  space  can  be  left  be- 
tween the  question  and  answer. 

If  a  witness  asks  a  question  of  counsel  (for  instance, 
when  he  does  not  understand  a  question  and  asks  for  ex- 
planation), the  question  should  be  treated  as  though  it 
were  an  answer;  and  in  the  same  way  a  remark  by  the 
counsel,  even  if  not  a  question,  should  be  treated  as 
though  it  were,  and  placed  before  the  vertical  line.  In 
other  words,  all  that  the  counsel  says  should  begin  to  the 
left  of  the  marginal  line,  and  all  that  the  witness  says 
should  begin  to  the  right. 

Marking  Exhibits 

All  exhibits  introduced  during  the  trial  should  be 
marked  by  the  reporter  in  some  distinctive  way.  Various 
methods  of  marking  are  used.  Some  reporters  mark  the 
exhibits  introduced  by  the  plaintiff  alphabetically  and 
those  introduced  by  the  defendant  with  numerals:  thus, 
those  introduced  by  plaintiff  would  be  marked  "Ex.  A." 
"Ex.  B,"  etc.,  and  those  introduced  by  the  defendant 
"Ex.  1,"  "Ex.  2,"  etc. 

What  to  Read 

On  this  subject  Mr.  W.  H.  Luzenberg  says:  "After  a 
speed  of  reasonable  rapidity  is  acquired  (the  speed  most 
States  require  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  words  per  minute), 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  13 

the  coming  court  reporter  will  find  that  it  will  be  of  ma- 
terial benefit  to  him  to  read  several  volumes  of  the  His- 
tory of  England,  and  to  study  carefully  Greenleaf  on  Evi- 
dence. If  the  stenographer  is  very  anxious  to  report 
cases  for  a  livelihood  he  will  sometimes  be  called  on  to  re- 
port cases  in  the  United  States  Courts,  and  if  he  will  read 
Kent's  Commentaries  on  International  Law,  he  will  find 
his  work  much  easier." 

Mr.  H.  W.  Thorne  gives  the  following  advice  in  his  ad- 
mirable book,  "Practical  Court  Reporting":  "Read  Par- 
sons on  Contracts,  Addison  on  Torts,  Bishop's  Criminal 
Law,  Baylies'  Trial  Practice,  The  Codes  of  Procedure,  not 
omitting  some  good  works  on  evidence.  The  commen- 
taries of  that  great  jurist,  Blackstone,  may  be  added  to 
this  list.  But  unless  the  law  student  intends  to  fit  himself 
for  the  practice  of  law,  he  will  save  much  time  by  omit- 
ting the  latter." 

Another  expert  reporter,  Mr.  W.  B.  Bottome,  gives  this 
advice:  "If  the  reporter  is  not  a  lawyer  he  should  give 
as  much  time  to  the  study  of  law  as  possible,  and  read 
Blackstone,  Kent,  and  other  standard  books.  This  will 
not  only  make  him  understand  the  legal  questions  arising 
in  the  trial  of  cases,  but  will  make  him  familiar  with  legal 
terms  and  expressions.  It  would  be  well  to  practice  pages 
from  law  books,  the  reports  of  trials,  and  legal  papers, 
such  as  complaints,  answers,  deeds,  bonds,  mortgages  and 
contracts.  If  it  is  known  beforehand  that  the  subject- 
matter  of  a  trial  is  to  be  exceptionally  difficult  or  tech- 
nical, it  is  a  good  plan  to  obtain  and  read  literature  upon 
that  subject  and  practice  writing  the  more  difficult  or  un- 
usual words." 

Mr.  P.  J.  Sweeney,  in  making  some  suggestions  to  law 
stenographers,  said: 

"Ewell's  'Medical  Jurisprudence,'  or  any  good  work 


U  r  II E     GREGG     REPORTER 

on  that  subject,  will  be  of  great  aid  to  a  stenographer 
preparing  for  the  reporting  of  inquests,  autopsies,  etc.  On 
the  study  of  evidence,  the  first  volume  of  Greenleaf  On 
Evidence  is  heartily  recommended.  Stephen's  'Digest  of 
Evidence'  is  another  good  work.  Andrew's  'American 
Law,'  or  AValker's  'Principles  of  American  Law,'  will 
give  a  good  general  idea  of  the  laws  of  this  country." 

Making  Captions 

From  a  paper  read  before  a  shorthand  teachers'  insti- 
tute by  the  well-known  teacher  and  reporter,  Mr.  A.  C. 
Van  Sant,  we  quote  the  following  explanation  in  regard 
to  typewriting  headings  and  indexing: 

"The  first  testimony  given  by  a  witness  is  the  direct 
testimony.  In  writing  it  out  on  the  typewriter,  the  words 
'Direct  Examination'  should  be  written  in  capitals,  in  the 
center  of  the  page,  and  the  name  of  the  examining  at- 
torney and  witness  should  appear  as  shown  on  the  printed 
charts. 

"After  the  completion  of  the  direct  testimony,  and  the 
witness  is  excused  by  the  attorney  for  the  plaintiff,  the 
defense  has  a  right  to  make  a  cross-examination.  \Vhen 
that  is  reached,  the  words  'Cross-Examination'  should  be 
placed  in  the  center  of  the  sheet,  and  the  name  of  the 
cross-examining  attorney  should  appear. 

"After  the  completion  of  the  cross-examination  the  at- 
torney for  the  plaintiff  has  a  right  to  a  re-direct  examina- 
tion of  the  witness  on  new  points  that  may  have  been 
brought  out  at  the  cross-exam i nation.  It  sometimes  hap- 
pens that  there  will  be  other  re-direct  and  other  re-cross 
examinations.  In  such  case  it  is  well  to  number  the  first 
'Re-direct  Examination  No.  1,'  'Re-Cross  Examination 
No.  1,'  and  give  a  different  number  to  each  re-cross  and 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  15 

re-direct   examination.     All   objections,   rulings   and   ex- 
ceptions must  be  carefully  noted. 

''When  the  record  is  completed  an  index  should  be 
made  giving  the  title  of  the  case,  the  names  of  the  attor- 
neys on  each  side,  and  which  shows  the  number  of  the 
page  of  the  testimony  of  each  witness  in  direct,  re-direct, 
cross  and  re-cross  examinations.  This  index  enables  law- 
yers, judge,  or  whoever  may  be  interested,  to  turn  to  the 
testimony  of  any  particular  witness." 

Where  to  Practice 

On  this  subject  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the  ad- 
vice given  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Luzenberg,  of  New  Orleans : 

"The  only  place  to  learn  how  to  swim  is  in  the  water, 
and  therefore  the  best  place  to  learn  court  reporting  is  by 
practicing  in  court  after  the  shorthand  foundation  is  laid, 
and  if  the  would-be  court  reporter  will  procure  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  the  Judge,  and  ask  his  permission  to  sit  at 
the  Court  Reporter's  table,  he  will  generally  receive  per- 
mission ;  but  if  for  good  reason  his  request  is  refused  he 
can  readily  obtain  permission  to  take  a  seat  in  the  spec- 
tators' seats  and  take  notes. 

''Let  him  secure  an  introduction  to  the  official  stenog- 
rapher and  try  to  do  all  that  he  can  to  help  him.  In  time 
he  will  reap  the  benefit  of  his  efforts  and  be  ready  to  act 
as  assistant  some  morning  when  the  court  reporter  is  too 
crowded  with  work  to  feel  like  doing  without  his  aid." 

Some  Good  Suggestions 

The  following  letter  from  Marion  Harland's  column  in 
the  Chicago  Daily  News  contains  some  good  advice : 

"In  reply  to  the  inquiry  from  the  law  stenographer  as 
to  the  best  method  of  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  law,  allow 


16  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

me  to  submit  the  following,  as  the  result  of  four  years' 
teaching  and  daily  work  in  a  law  office : 

"I  should  advise  the  ambitious  la\v  stenographer  to 
make  shorthand  copies  of  legal  papers;  especially  deeds, 
mortgages,  affidavits,  leases,  contracts,  bills  of  sale,  re- 
leases and  assignments.  She  will  find  a  case  of  such  files 
in  the  office.  She  should  also  familiarize  herself  with  land 
descriptions  and  testimony.  From  any  good  work  on  plead- 
ing and  practice,  which  she  will  find  on  the  bookshelves, 
let  her  make  copies  of  chancery  proceedings,  bills  and  de- 
crees. Puterbaugh's  'Pleading  and  Practice'  is  good. 
Write  out  notes  on  typewriter  and  compare  with  forms. 
This  method  will  give  both  the  legal  terms  and  legal 
forms.  Much  depends  upon  form  of  papers  and  neatness. 
If  need  be,  sacrifice  speed  to  neatness;  speed  will  come 
with  familiarity." 

Interrupting1  a  Witness 

The  reporter  should  not  hesitate  to  stop  a  witness  and 
ask  him  to  repeat  an  answer  if  he  speaks  indistinctly.  Mr. 
Isaac  S.  Dement  emphasizes  the  importance  of  this  as  fol- 
lows: 

"When  you  have  become  a  reporter,  ask  the  witness  to 
repeat  anything  you  have  failed  to  understand  in  his  re- 
marks. This  is  a  right  you  should  never  waive;  for  it  is 
your  duty  to  make  an  accurate  report  and  if  you  make  no 
objection  when  the  witness  speaks  indistinctly,  your  em- 
ployer will  have  the  right  to  assume  you  are  making  such 
a  report.  But  your  report  will  not  be  accurate  when  you 
have  omitted  anything  or  have  put  your  own  construction 
upon  something  you  very  indistinctly  heard." 

And  Mr.  H.  W.  Thome,  writing  on  the  same  subject, 
mentions  some  of  the  "tricks  of  the  trade,"  which  may  be 
used  with  troublesome  witnesses.  Mr.  Thome  says: 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  17 

"Incidentally  it  may  be  stated,  that  the  rapid  witness 
who  clothes  his  ideas  in  grammatical  language  distinctly 
uttered,  is  more  easily  reported  than  he  who  speaks  mod- 
erately fast,  but  interjects  such  words  as  'he  says,  says 
he,'  speaks  a  part  of  a  sentence,  changes  it,  'goes  ahead 
and  backs  up, '  and  jumbles  words,  sentences  and  parts  of 
sentences  in  intricate  confusion.  Let  the  utterance  of  the 
last  witness  be  indistinct  or  let  him  talk  rapidly,  and  he 
will  cause  a  stenographer  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  Heroic 
measures  must  then  be  resorted  to.  Insist  upon  a  witness 
repeating  answers  that  are  jumbled  and  indistinct,  letting 
him  understand,  if  possible,  the  reason  for  the  repetition. 
He  will  then  make  an  effort  to  do  better. 

' '  While  alluding  to  the  rapid  witness,  some  suggestions 
may  be  given  to  a  young  stenographer  which  will  aid 
him,  as  well  as  his  more  experienced  brother,  in  inno- 
cently stopping  such  a  witness  in  a  rambling  statement  of 
a  conversation  or  of  facts  and  occurrences.  If  he  be  hard 
pressed  by  the  volubility  of  the  witness,  let  the  stenogra- 
pher ask  him  to  repeat  names  of  persons  and  places,  of 
dates,  amounts,  gestures,  and  anything,  in  fact,  that,  to  the 
observer,  would  appear  to  be  a  natural  repetition.  This 
suggestion  has  never  been  patented.  Resort  to  this  'trick 
of  the  trade'  can  be  justified  by  precedent.  Frequently, 
in  conversation,  in  slow  dictation  of  matter  taken  in  long- 
hand, in  the  comparison  of  papers,  and  in  many  other  in- 
stances that  will  readily  occur  to  the  reader,  the  person 
speaking  or  reading  is  asked  to  repeat  figures,  dates, 
amounts  and  names  of  places  and  persons.  It  is  usually 
done  to  verify  the  listener's  understanding  of  the  lan- 
guage used,  and  why  should  not  the  stenographer  have 
the  same  opportunity?  Some  may  say  that,  upon  the 
same  principle,  the  entire  testimony  of  the  witness  should 
be  repeated.  Not.  so.  The  context  may  be  relied  upon  to 


18  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

verify  niiiiiy  mailers,  but,  as  before  remarked,  it  is  unre- 
liable as  respeets  names,  dates,  amounts  and  gestures." 

Securing  Appointment 

In  answer  to  a  question  about  securing  an  appointment, 
the  well-known  reporter,  Mr.  H.  W.  Thorne,  wrote: 

"I  shall  assume  your  age  to  be  between  twenty  and 
twenty-five  years,  and  that  you  are  fitted  by  education 
and  intellect  to  begin  preparation  for,  and  to  become,  a 
court  reporter. 

"Familiarity  with  law  language  and  legal  procedure, 
and  with  the  technicalities  with  which  both  bristle,  must 
exist  in  order  to  properly  report  trials  of  lawsuits.  Hence, 
I  advise  that  you  immediately  obtain  a  position  as  steno- 
graphic amanuensis  in  a  law  office.  Failing  to  do  so,  ac- 
cept employment  as  amanuensis,  or  assistant,  to  a  law  re- 
porter. I  am  in  favor  of  commencing  in  the  law  office. 

"Assuming  that  you  secure  the  latter  sort  of  position, 
you  should  have  some  leisure  time  to  devote  to  reading. 
Begin  a  systematic  course  of  law  reading,  say  some  good 
work  on  Contracts,  and  also  a  work  on  procedure  or  prac- 
tice in  your  state.  Take  dictation  from  such  works,  and 
from  books  of  legal  forms,  which  are  to  be  found  in  every 
law  library.  Your  employer  will  gladly  permit  you  to 
make  use  of  such  books,  and,  doubtless,  will  assist  you 
with  advice  and  in  other  ways. 

"You  must  first  lay  the  foundation  by  acquiring  a 
knowledge  of  the  law  itself,  superficial  though  it  may  be. 
Otherwise,  you  would  be  constantly  hampered  in  record- 
ing, and  afterwards  in  reading,  your  notes  of  legal  pro- 
ceedings. *  *  * 

"Assuming  that  you  are  competent  ra  every  way  to  fill 
the  court  reporter's  chair,  I  advise  getting  in  touch  with 
the  candidate  of  your  party  for  district  judge,  and  his 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  19 

political  friends  and  following;  let  them  know  that  you 
desire  appointment,  and  do  all  you  can  honorably  and 
legitimately  to  further  the  nomination  and  election  of 
your  candidate. 

"You  may  meet  this  obstacle:  A  lawyer  of  sufficient 
practice  and  prominence  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
office  mentioned,  has,  in  his  office,  or  has  had  act  for  him, 
a  stenographer  in  whose  qualifications  he  has  confidence. 
If  an  applicant,  it  is  probable  that  the  stenographer  would 
be  appointed  by  the  candidate,  if  successful. 

"That  is  what  I  meant  by  getting  'in  touch'  with  the 
candidate.  If,  for  instance,  you  could  get  into  the  office 
of  the  candidate  who  is  to  be  the  future  judge,  you  would 
advance  your  cause  considerably." 


THE  JUDGE'S  CHARGE 

By  W.  E.  H.  Searcy 


(Reprinted   from  The   Stenographer) 


T|HE  most  difficult  work  of  a  court  reporter  is  found 
I  in  reporting  the  charge  of  the  judge  in  important 
cases.  Having  had  an  experience  of  seventeen  or 
eighteen  years  as  official  court  reporter,  in  a 
Circuit  Court,  we  offer  a  few  suggestions  to  those  just 
entering  upon  this  work. 

(1)  Listen  attentively  to  the  legal  argument  which  is 
directed  to  the  court,  make  a  short  note  of  the  points 
raised,  and  the  books  and  cases  cited.  Try  to  understand 
the  legal  contention  of  each  side  as  it  is  presented.  These 
legal  arguments  are  generally  made  at  the  beginning  of 
the  case,  when  there  is  a  demurrer  in  the  case  or  a  special 
plea  of  some  kind,  or  motion  made  to  dismiss,  or  amend- 
ments are  offered.  They  are  often  made  when  the  testi- 
mony is  concluded  and  the  case  is  about  to  be  presented 
to  the  jury.  Counsel  who  are  to  have  the  conclusion  be- 
fore the  jury  are  generally  required  to  give  the  opposite 
side  the  points  upon  which  they  will  rely,  and  the  au- 
thorities they  will  present  to  sustain  their  contentions. 
Sometimes  the  legal  status  of  a  case  comes  out  on  a  mo- 
tion to  non-suit  the  plaintiff.  No  matter  when  or  in  what 
manner  the  law  of  the  case  is  presented,  let  the  reporter 
make  careful  notes  of  the  legal  contentions  on  both  sides. 
Then,  when  the  court  charges  the  jury,  the  reporter  will 
understand  something  of  what  the  judge  says. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  21 

(2)  The  court  reporter  should  not  report  the  evidence 
of  the  case  blindly.    He  must  make  each  case  "his  case" 
and  keep  the  evidence  in  his  mind,  and  see  what  the 
parties  are  driving  at.     He  must  listen  attentively  to  the 
objections  that  are  made,  and  see  what  the  object  of  the 
case  is,  and  where  it  is  all  tending.     This  will  enable  the 
reporter  to  understand  the  court's  charge,  so  far  as  it 
bears  on  the  issues  of  the  case  arising  under  the  evidence. 

(3)  A  court  reporter  should  read  law  at  his  odd  mo- 
ments.    A  good  practice  is  to  turn  to  the  code  of  your 
state  and  copy  the  index  many  times.     That  will  give  a 
practice  upon  legal  terms  that  will  be  constantly  met  in 
court.    After  the  words  in  the  index  can  be  rapidly  writ- 
ten and  read,  refer  to  the  body  of  the  book  to  ascertain 
the  meaning  of  such  as  are  not  familiar.     This  will  help 
greatly  in  reporting  the  judge's  charge. 

(4)  In   conclusion,   let  us   say :      The   court   reporter 
must  think  as  well  as  write,  and  remember  as  well  as  re- 
cord.   It  ought  to  be  the  boast  of  a  court  reporter  that  he 
can  tell  everything  that  has  been  testified  to,  and  all  the 
points  of  the  judge's  charge,  without  looking  at  his  notes. 
Try  this,  and  success  will  begin  to  dawn  where  doubt  and 
fear  have  dwelt. 


OFFICIAL    REPORTERS' 
QUALIFICATIONS 

By  H.  W.  Thome 


(Reprinted  from  The  Stenographer) 


ERSONS  fitting  for  official  court  reporting  will  be 
interested  in  the  general  character  and  scope  of  ex- 
aminations to  which  applicants  in  some  jurisdic- 
tions are  subjected.  In  some  States  appoint- 
ments are  made  without  special  test  of  fitness,  the  general 
standing  of  the  practitioner  as  an  unofficial  law  reporter 
and  his  demonstrated  ability  being  accepted  in  lieu 
thereof. 

The  examination  papers  used  in  February  last  by  the 
Board  of  Examiners,  consisting  of  Official  Reporters 
Charles  Currier  Beale,  Isaac  J.  Doane  and  Alice  E.  Brett, 
in  testing  applicants  for  the  position  of  official  shorthand 
reporter  of  the  Massachusetts  Superior  Court,  fairly  pre- 
sent what,  in  the  opinion  of  experts,  should  be  the  qualifi- 
cations of  a  competent  law  reporter. 

The  shorthand  feature  of  the  examination  consisted  of 
five  tests  (four  of  five  minutes  each),  as  follows:  At  125 
words  per  minute  on  technical  matter,  150  words  per  min- 
ute on  ordinary  testimony,  150  words  per  minute  on  selec- 
tion from  Judge's  charge,  175  words  per  minute  on 
ordinary  testimony  (this  matter  all  being  required  to  be 
read  back),  and  a  final  test  of  a  half -hour  on  impromptu 
testimony,  etc.  All  matter  was  required  to  be  transcribed. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  23 

The  balance  of  the  examination  was  in  the  form  of  ques- 
tions to  which  answers  were  required  to  be  written,  and 
was  composed  of  seven  papers,  of  which  a  synopsis  fol- 
lows: 

First  paper.  Limit  of  time  for  preparation,  10  min- 
utes; comprising  questions  as  to  applicant's  age,  general 
education,  highest  school  attended  and  course  of  study 
there  pursued;  particulars  of  stenographic  education; 
period  of  time  and  capacity  in  which  applicant  had  been 
employed  in  stenographic  work,  and  experience,  if  any, 
in  verbatim  reporting ;  what  language  other  than  English 
studied,  and  whether  able  to  read  or  speak  same ;  condi- 
tion of  general  health,  eye-sight  and  hearing. 

Second  paper.  This  covered  spelling  and  punctuation, 
and  its  preparation  was  limited  to  30  minutes;  contained 
50  words,  some  of  which  were  misspelled,  which  were  re- 
quired to  be  correctly  rewritten  and  nothing  to  be  done 
with  those  which  the  applicant  thought  to  be  correct.  Two 
uncapitalized  and  unpunctuated  paragraphs,  comprising 
two  questions  and  answers,  which  were  required  to  be 
properly  capitalized  and  punctuated,  concluded  this  paper. 

Third  paper.  Time  limit  for  preparation,  30  minutes; 
required  the  giving  of  a  concise  legal  or  technical  term  or 
phrase  to  properly  describe  each  of  25  descriptive  expres- 
sions, one  of  which  will  serve  for  illustration:  "An  inten- 
tional misstatement  under  oath."  Obviously  the  proper 
answer  would  be  "perjury." 

Fourth  paper.  Time  limit,  10  minutes;  required  a 
statement  in  general  terms  of  the  part  of  the  body  affected 
by  the  following  diseases:  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  anky- 
losis,  lumbago,  caries,  bronchitis,  angina  pectoris,  neuritis, 
cataract,  anemia,  and  appendicitis. 

Fifth  paper,  entitled,  "Miscellaneous."  Time  limit, 
40  minutes;  consisted  of  ten  questions  covering  gen- 


2-1  T  //  /•      G  A'  /•  G  G      A'  1-  I'  0  K  /   I-  K 


eral  literature.  The  first  of  these  questions  illustrates 
the  character  of  this  paper:  "Name  one  American  writer 
in  each  of  the  following  classes,  together  with  a  well- 
known  work  of  each:  (a)  historians;  (b)  poets;  (c)  nov- 
elists." 

Sixth  paper,  consisting  first  of  seven  questions  on  the 
subject,  "Duties  of  a  Court  Reporter,"  was  required  to 
be  completed  in  30  minutes,  and  was  as  follows:  "(1) 
State  what  a  reporter  should  do  when  a  witness  speaks 
too  rapidly  for  him  to  report  verbatim;  (2)  State  what  a 
reporter  should  do  when  directed  by  the  Court  to  'strike 
out'  a  portion  of  the  testimony:  (3)  State  the  duty  of  a 
reporter  with  reference  to  marking  exhibits,  and  how  to 
avoid  mistakes  in  properly  numbering  the  same ;  (4)  State 
what  portions  of  the  proceedings  in  a  trial  are  required 
by  statute  to  be  taken  by  the  reporter;  (5)  State  how  the 
reporter's  notes  may  be  indexed  for  immediate  reference 
during  a  trial;  (6)  State  what  the  reporter  should  enter 
in  his  notes  when  a  witness  indicates  an  object  or  a  dis- 
tance by  gesture,  without  describing  the  same  in  words, 
and  (7)  State  what  the  reporter  should  do  with  reference 
to  taking  notes  when  a  witness  is  called  to  the  jury  rail 
to  describe  a  plan  or  model,  and  does  not  speak  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  by  the  stenographer."  This  paper 
concluded  with  a  statement  of  a  suppositions  case  giving 
names  of  the  parties  thereto,  name  of  Court,  County,  State. 
presiding  justice,  docket  number  of  case,  names  of  the 
respective  attorneys,  etc.,  etc.,  and  the  applicant  Avas  re- 
quested to  "write  out  in  proper  form  the  heading  of  the 
case  down  to  and  including  the  calling  of  the  witness  to 
stand,  and  the  usual  first  question  and  answer." 

Seventh  and  last  paper,  entitled,  "Legal  Proceedings," 
lime  limit  20  minutes,  was  as  follows:  "(1)  What  is 
Making  an  exception,'  and  what  is  the  purpose  of  it? 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  25 

(2)  State  the  terms  by  which  the  parties  to  the  following 
classes  of  legal  proceedings  are  described:  (a)  actions  of 
law;  (b)  criminal  causes;  (c)  writs  of  entry;  (d)  divorce 
proceedings;  (e)  proceedings  for  assessment  of  damages 
for  taking  of  land  for  public  uses.  (3)  Name  the 
different  stages  in  the  examination  of  a  witness,  and  by 
whom  conducted.  (4)  State  the  order  of  proceedings 
in  the  trial  of  a  civil  case.  (5)  What  is  meant  by  a 
hypothetical  question?" 

Analysis  of  the  foregoing  leads  to  the  irresistible  conclu- 
sion that  expert  law  reporters  firmly  believe  that  short- 
hand speed  is  but  one  of  the  many  essentials  which  the 
efficient  law  stenographer  must  possess.  It  is  evident  that 
he  must  not  be  too  old ;  that  he  should  have  vigorous  bod- 
ily health,  normal  sight  and  hearing,  and  have  at  least 
the  following  accomplishments:  A  good  English  educa- 
tion, of  which  correct  spelling  and  punctuation  are  in- 
dispensable requisites ;  a  wide  reading  in  general  lit- 
erature ;  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  language  of 
substantive  and  procedure  law;  some  knowledge  of  med- 
icine and  medical  terms ;  a  thorough  detailed  knowledge 
of  the  duties  of  the  court  reporter  in  taking  testimony 
and  judicial  proceedings,  and  an  acquaintance  with  the 
formalities  and  steps  in  legal  proceedings  as  well  as  the 
phraseology  used  therein. 


DICTATION  MACHINES   AND   COURT 
REPORTING 

By  James  E.  Munson 


(Reprinted   from   The   Typewriter  and   Phonographic  World) 


T|HE  introduction  and  general  adoption  of  the 
I  graphophone  and  phonograph  by  court  stenog- 
raphers for  use  in  transcribing  their  notes  has 
worked  a  revolution  in  more  ways  than  one. 
While  it  has  greatly  increased  the  amount  of  transcription 
that  one  stenographer  can  accomplish  in  a  given  time,  and 
so  has  materially  enlarged  his  income,  on  the  other  hand 
it  has  closed  the  doors  of  the  old  school  for  reporters  in 
which  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  present-day  court  stenog- 
raphers acquired  their  ability  to  do  practical  work; 
namely,  the  practice  of  doing  shorthand  amanuensis  work 
for  court  reporters. 

When  at  the  age  of  21  I  came  to  the  city  of  New  York 
to  live,  although  I  was  then  a  fairly  good  shorthand  writ- 
er, yet  I  was  not  qualified  to  report  legal  proceedings  as 
they  were  carried  on  in  the  courts.  I  therefore  began 
playing  "second  fiddle"  by  doing  amanuensis  work  for 
those  who  were  qualified  and  were  already  engaged  in 
professional  court  reporting.  In  that  way  I  not  only  ac- 
quired the  necessary  speed  for  court  work,  but  learned 
the  forms  of  transcripts  that  were  in  use  by  reporters, 
and  also  gained  considerable  knowledge  in  regard  to  legal 
terms  and  phraseology,  without  which  no  one  can  suc- 
cessfully do  -this  kind  of  work.  After  a  time  I  went  into 
a  law  office  where,  besides  doing  office  shorthand  work,  I 
read  law,  and  was  subsequently  admitted  to  the  Bar. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  27 

After  that  I  again  took  up  shorthand  law  reporting  as  a 
profession,  and  have  continued  in  it  most  of  the  time  ever 
since.  The  foundation  of  my  law-reporting  ability  was 
laid  while  I  was  acting  as  shorthand  amanuensis  for  court 
reporters,  and  I  think  I  am  not  mistaken  when  I  repeat 
that  most,  if  not  all,  of  our  court  stenographers  fledged 
their  wings  in  the  same  way  that  I  did.  They  began  by 
taking  dictation  in  shorthand  from  practical  reporters 
and  transcribing  their  notes  into  longhand  either  in  man- 
uscript or  typewritten  copy.  And  then,  when  they  had 
acquired  the  requisite  speed  and  knowledge  of  the  work, 
they  struck  out  for  themselves. 

I  remember  well  the  first  case  that  I  tackled  as  a  re- 
porter. A  friend  of  mine,  who,  like  myself,  was  also  an 
amanuensis,  got  an  order  for  the  reporting  of  a  case  that 
was  to  be  tried  in  a  Brooklyn  court,  but  as  he  did  not  feel 
competent  to  do  the  work  alone,  he  asked  me  to  do  it  for 
him,  which  I  mustered  up  courage  to  do,  he  taking  check 
notes  with  me ;  and  when  the  work  was  completed  and  the 
transcript  delivered  and  paid  for,  we  divided  the  fee  be- 
tween us. 

From  that  time  down  until  the  comparatively  re- 
cent advent  of  the  machines  with  wax-coated  cylinders, 
no  one  attempted  to  do  law  reporting  until  he  was  grad- 
uated from  the  amanuensis  school.  Now,  however,  every- 
thing is  changed.  Nearly  every  reporter,  instead  of 
dictating  his  notes  to  a  shorthand  amanuensis  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way,  simply  goes  to  his  office  and  talks  to  his 
machine,  and  then  afterward  a  mere  typewriter  operator, 
listening  to  the  reproduction  of  the  record  on  the  wax, 
makes  the  required  typewritten  manuscript.  The  advan- 
tage to  the  reporter  of  this  method  of  doing  the  work  is 
twofold.  It  is  much  more  convenient  and  causes  no  loss 
of  time,  because  the  silent  machine  is  always  waiting  for 


28  THE     GREGG    REPORTER 

him  in  his  office,  which  of  course,  cannot  be  said  of  the 
living  amanuensis;  and,  most  important  of  all.  there  is  no 
limit  to  the  speed  at  which  the  machine  can  take  dictation. 
But  the  information  about  reporting  forms  and  legal  ex- 
pressions that  was  formerly  learned  by  the  amanuensis 
while  doing  his  work  is  now  imparted  to  the  operator  of 
the  typewriter,  but  as  she — it  is  usually  a  lady — is  not 
necessarily  a  shorthand  writer,  the  acquired  information 
does  not  go  any  further.  It  does  not  make  a  law  reporter 
of  her  as  it  did  of  the  amanuensis,  because  shorthand  is 
eliminated  from  the  problem  of  transcription. 

The  result  of  this  state  of  things  is  now  being  sharply 
felt  in  a  very  perceptible  dearth  of  capable  law  stenog- 
raphers, not  only  to  fill  new  positions  that  are  being 
created  all  the  time,  but  to  take  the  places  of  those  who  are 
dropping  out  of  or  retiring  from  the  profession.  If  every 
law  school  in  the  United  States  were  to  be  suddenly  closed 
it  would  not  be  many  years  before  there  would  be  a  lack 
of  competent  lawyers  to  attend  to  the  growing  legal  busi- 
ness of  the  country.  Shut  up  all  our  normal  schools  and 
teachers'  colleges  for  only  a  short  time,  and  there  would 
be  a  scarcity  of  qualified  teachers  for  the  public  schools. 
The  same  thing  is  now  happening  in  regard  to  the  profes- 
sion of  court  reporting.  In  a  little  time,  as  things  are 
now,  it  will  be  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  get  com- 
petent men  for  court  positions. 

Now,  there  are  two  ways  in  which  to  view  this  situation. 
While  it  is  somewhat  discouraging  to  an  ambitious  young 
stenographer  who  would  like  to  qualify  himself  for  court 
work,  to  find  the  pathway  over  which  all  of  us  have  walked 
to  the  goal  thus  abruptly  closed,  nevertheless  to  those  who 
succeed  in  getting  there  by  some  other  means  the  prize 
will  be  all  the  more  valuable.  The  most  lucrative  branch 
of  the  reportorial  profession  at  the  present  time  is  that  of 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  29 


law  reporting,  and  it  will  continue  to  become  more  so 
from  this  time  on.  I,  therefore,  advise  every  shorthand 
writer  whose  natural  and  educational  qualifications  fit 
him  for  the  work  to  turn  his  attention  to  this  field.  Al- 
though the  amanuensis  school  is  closed,  yet  there  are 
other  ways  in  which  the  end  may  be  attained,  and  I  will 
now  give  a  few  hints  on  this  subject. 

In  the  first  place,  no  one  should  think  of  attempting  to 
become  a  court  stenographer  unless  he  has  a  good  general 
education.  He  should  not  only  be  a  good  speller,  by 
which  I  mean  able  to  spell  all  ordinary  words  correctly 
without  having  recourse  to  the  dictionary,  but  he  should 
have  the  ability  to  write  grammatical  and  good  English. 
He  should  have  an  extensive  fund  of  general  information, 
especially  as  to  current  events,  and  he  should  constantly 
aim  to  enlarge  it.  His  physical  strength  and  energy 
should  be  considerably  beyond  the  average,  as  his  work 
will  oftentimes  severely  tax  his  endurance.  He  should  be 
quick  and  active  in  his  movements,  for  the  profession  of 
law  reporting  is  no  place  for  one  of  lazy  disposition  or 
sluggish  temperament.  His  vocabulary  of  shorthand 
word  outlines  with  which  he  is  thoroughly  familiar  should 
be  large,  especially  in  the  line  of  legal  subjects.  In  prac- 
ticing from  dictation  for  speed  it  will,  therefore,  be  well 
to  work  with  material  furnished  by  court  reporters,  such 
as  printed  cases  containing  testimony  of  witnesses  and 
judges' charges,  which  may  be  obtained  in  lawyers'  offices, 
and  sometimes  from  clerks  of  appellate  courts.  The  best 
material  for  practice,  however,  consists  of  full  transcripts 
of  stenographic  reports.  Every  court  reporter  accumu- 
lates (to  his  sorrow)  a  stock  of  dead  wood  in  the  shape  of 
transcripts  of  cases  which  are  either  left  on  his  hands  by 
lawyers  who,  after  ordering  them,  neglect  to  call  for  them, 
or  are  cases  that  he  has  made  duplicate  carbon  copies  of 


30 THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

in  the  unrealized  hope  that  they  will  be  needed  by  some 
one.  These  unused  transcripts  may  sometimes  be  obtain- 
ed from  stenographers  by  purchase  for  a  moderate  sum, 
or  by  hiring  or  borrowing  them. 

It  is  also  recommended  to  the  student  of  law  reporting 
that  he  occasionally  study  the  law  dictionary  for  legal 
terms  and  expressions,  so  that  when  he  hears  them  in  court 
for  the  first  time  they  will  not  sound  unfamiliar  to  him; 
such,  for  example,  as  the  following :  caveat  emptor,  cestuy 
que  trust,  corpus  delicti,  duces  tecum,  ex  parte,  in  esse, 
lex  loci,  mala  fides,  prima  facie,  quo  warranto,  res  inter 
alios  acta,  ship's  husband,  statute  of  frauds,  etc. 

Every  candidate  for  admission  to  the  field  of  law  report- 
ing should  be  an  expert  typewriter  operator.  Then,  it 
would  not  be  a  bad  idea,  while  practicing  for  speed, 
to  spend  part  of  the  time  assisting  court  reporters  by 
preparing  their  transcripts  from  the  dictation  machines. 
In  so  doing  the  student  will  learn  reporting  forms,  the 
same  as  he  would  in  amanuensis  dictation,  although  his 
speed  would  have  to  be  attained  by  separate  practice. 

When  the  student  has  acquired  sufficient  skill  to  take 
examinations  of  witnesses  at  a  pretty  good  speed,  then 
and  not  until  then  should  he  go  into  court  and  practice 
there.  It  will  be  well  for  him  to  make  known  to  the  offi- 
cial stenographer,  and  through  him  to  the  court  officer, 
what  he  wishes  to  do,  and  then  he  will  generally  get  a 
suitable  place  at  a  table  to  work.  Should  he  not  do  this, 
the  officer  might  think  he  was  too  near  the  jury,  and  ask 
him  to  step  outside  the  railing.  At  first  the  writer  will 
stumble  and  fall,  and  feel  discouraged.  A  rapid  witness 
or  counsel  may  knock  him  out,  and  he  will  wish  he  was 
somewhere  else.  But  let  him  jump  up  and  go  at  it  again, 
and  again,  and  again,  and  finally  he  will  catch  on  and  feel 
that  he  is  "one  of  us." 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COURT 
REPORTER 

By  Charles  Currier  Beale 


(Extract   from    a   paper    read    before    the   New   England    Shorthand 
Reporters'  Association) 


ET  me  give  you  an  idea  of  what  is  required  of 
a  court  reporter.  The  average  rate  of  speak- 
ing which  he  must  record  word  for  word  in 
his  notebook  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  words 
per  minute.  To  be  sure,  this  speed  is  sometimes 
slackened  to  a  hundred,  but  often  increased  to  two 
hundred;  and  this  average  speed  must  be  kept  up  hour 
after  hour  under  any  and  all  conditions,  with  any  and  all 
kinds  of  language.  The  words  of  the  English  language  as 
used  in  ordinary  speech  will  average  at  least  five  letters 
to  a  word.  These  five  letters  in  the  ordinary  longhand 
will  require  at  least  twenty  distinct  motions  of  the  pen. 
The  useful  art  of  shorthand  has  condensed  this  to  an  av- 
erage of  three  movements  to  a  word.  In  other  words,  in 
order  to  write  legible  shorthand  at  the  rate  of  150  words 
per  minute  the  writer  must  skillfully  execute  certain  char- 
acters requiring  450  distinct  movements  of  the  pen  to  a 
minute,  and  must  keep  up  this  enormous  speed  hour  after 
hour  if  need  be.  Often  a  whole  day's  work  will  consist  of 
unbroken  testimony.  Those  unfamiliar  with  our  duties 
say  the  pay  we  receive  is  exorbitant  because  we  are  actu- 
ally working  in  court  only  five  and  one-half  hours.  True, 
but  in  those  five  and  one-half  hours  very  often  there  is  no 


32  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

rest  for  the  stenographer,  and  if  we  take  the  trouble  to. 
perform  a  simple  act  of  multiplication  we  find  his  flying 
fingers  have  recorded  in  that  short  day  of  apparently  easy 
work  a  total  of  fifty  thousand  words,  involving  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  distinct  movements  of  the  pen. 
The  fabled  labors  of  Hercules  sink  into  insignificance  as 
compared  with  what  he  has  accomplished.  Every  day  he 
sets  down  an  amount  of  matter  equal  to  a  respectable- 
sized  novel.  The  pages  of  the  notebooks  he  fills  in  a  year, 
if  placed  continuously,  would  stretch  from  the  Gilded 
Dome  to  Senator  Lodge's  home  in  Nahant.  If  the  char- 
acters were  in  one  continuous  line  it  would  reach  from 
the  farthest  point  of  Cape  Cod  to  the  most  distant  of  the 
Berkshire  Hills,  and  span  the  whole  of  this  good  old  com- 
monwealth with  the  mystic  symbols  of  the  silent  scribe. 
No  one  human  being  could  speak  the  words  he  must  un- 
ceasingly and  uncomplainingly  write.  A  palsied  tongue 
and  a  paralyzed  throat  would  end  the  speaker's  efforts  in 
a  few  days  or  weeks;  yet  the  hand  of  the  ready  writer 
toils  on,  guided  by  an  intelligent  brain,  and  supplemented 
by  an  ear  that  must  hear  and  recognize  each  and  every 
utterance,  wrhether  it  be  the  burr  of  the  Scotchman,  the 
brogue  of  the  Irishman,  the  lisp  of  the  Welshman,  the 
broad  accent  of  the  Englishman,  or  the  nasal  drawl  of  our 
own  New  England.  The  broken  speech  of  the  Russian 
Jew,  the  liquid  patois  of  the  swarthy  son  of  sunny  Itnly. 
the  guttural  growl  of  the  German,  and  the  mincing  tongue 
of  the  Frenchman,  all  mingle  in  one  ever-changing  lingual 
pot-pourri,  that  puzzles  alike  the  Judge,  the  lawyers,  and 
the  listeners,  but  which  the  stenographer  must  get 
whether  or  not.  The  loquacious  native  of  the  Emerald 
Isle  is  checked  in  his  torrent  of  words  by  the  remark  from 
the  Judge,  "The  witness  talks  so  fast  the  Court  cannot 
understand  him ;  will  the  stenographer  please  read  the 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


answer?"  or,  the  sunburned  daughter  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, who  amply  makes  up  in  rapidity  of  utterance  for 
her  imperfect  knowledge  of  our  vernacular,  fails  to  make 
himself  understood  by  counsel,  who  turn  nonchalantly  to 
the  silent  worker,  and  say,  "Mr.  Reporter,  will  you  kindly 
read  what  the  witness  said?" 

But  enough  of  this  side  of  the  picture ;  there  is  another 
view  I  wish  to  present  to  you;  another  Herculean  labor, 
skillfully  performed  and  scantily  recompensed,  which 
awaits  the  silent  man  at  the  end  of  his  day's  work  in 
court — the  transcription  of  his  notes.  Fortunately,  not  all 
that  goes  down  in  those  never-ending  notebooks  has  to  be 
rewritten  for  1he  eye  of  the  judge  or  the  lawyers.  There 
is  an  end  to  the  endurance  of  even  stenographers,  and  I 
fear  that  no  human  being  with  human  nerves  and  human 
need  for  sleep  and  rest  could  cope  with  that  task.  But  a 
fairly  generous  portion  has  to  be  transcribed  on  the 
writing-machine ;  and  again  the  tired  fingers  must  fly  in 
swift  staccato  until  the  work  is  accomplished.  Most  of 
this  work  must  of  necessity  be  done  at  night,  by  the  flick- 
ering flame  of  the  gas  jet  or  the  incandescent  brilliance  of 
the  electric  light.  Far  into  the  night  must  the  click  of  the 
typewriter  keys  and  the  drone  of  the  dictator  extend. 
The  judge  and  the  lawyers,  the  witnesses  and  the  spec- 
tators, can  go  to  their  homes  and  enjoy  the  quiet  of  their 
firesides  or  that  recreation  of  mind  which  is  equally  bene- 
ficial to  the  body :  but  the  stenographer  must  work  though 
nerves  throb  and  pulses  flag,  though  tired  eyes  will  close 
rebelliously,  and  the  faithful  hands  almost  refuse  to  do 
the  bidding  of  the  exhausted  brain.  And  yet  good  law- 
yers have  been  known  to  say  that  our  prices  are  exorbi- 
tant. But  it  is  the  price  of  blood !  It  is  the  giving  of  one's 
vitality,  both  of  mind  and  body,  of  a  mind  and  a  body 
trained  and  educated  to  a  point  beyond  which  danger 


34  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

lies.  And  what  a  training  and  what  an  education !  The 
whole  range  of  the  sciences  is  comprised  in  the  knowl- 
edge that  a  good  court  stenographer  must  ;ic;|iiin\  To-day 
comes  the  skilled  physician  with  his  expert  testimony  and 
his  learned  disquisitions  upon  hystero-neurasthenia  and 
cerebro-spinal-meningitis,  ransacking  the  dead  past  of 
Rome  and  Greece  for  terms  to  fit  modern  ailments  and 
fin-de-siecle  surgery.  To-morrow  the  electrician,  with  his 
talk  of  mysterious  elements  and  forces,  his  microfarads 
and  his  electrostatics.  Again  the  mechanical  expert, 
glibly  describing  the  complicated  construction  and  work- 
ings of  appliances  and  instruments  whose  very  names  are 
familiar  only  to  the  initiated.  Add  to  a  knowledge  oij 
these  various  subjects  sufficient  at  least  to  recognize  their 
nomenclature,  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  classics,  a  famili- 
arity with  the  most  important  modern  languages,  a  fair 
amount  of  legal  learning,  a  reading  wide  enough  to  rec- 
ognize a  quotation  and  assign  it  to  its  source,  whether  it  be 
Shakespeare,  Browning,  the  Bible,  or  the  Zend-Avesta,  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  geography,  a  modicum  of  history,  a 
fluency  with  figures  and  an  absolute  command  of  the  in- 
tricacies of  English  speech — spelling,  punctuation,  and 
grammar — and  you  have  the  foundation  of  a  stenographic 
career,  on  which  ten  or  twenty  years'  active  practice  of 
your  profession  will  perhaps  enable  you  to  build  the  super- 
structure of  success. 


METHODS  OF  FURNISHING 
DAILY  COPY 

By  Frank  H.  Burt 


(Extract    from    a   paper   read   before   the   New   England    Shorthand 
Reporters'  Association) 


TiHE  advantages  of  daily  copy  on  a  large  case  are 
I  too  apparent  to  need  mention.  From  the  stenog- 
rapher's standpoint,  aside  from  the  profits  which 
he  may  earn,  there  is  a  great  satisfaction  in  seeing 
his  notes  cleaned  up  every  day  and  in  knowing  that  he 
will  never  be  called  on  at  an  inopportune  time  for  a 
transcript  of  that  day's  work.  Then,  too,  there  is  nothing 
more  vexing  than  to  take  all  alone  a  long  case,  merely 
getting  out  from  day  to  day  such  extracts  as  are  wanted ; 
for  three  times  out  of  four  each  side  will  want  something 
entirely  different  from  the  other,  and  each  party  usually 
demands  more  than  you  can  do.  Then  again,  if  it  is  not 
written  out  immediately,  you  will  get  a  polite  call,  per- 
haps, two  years  later  in  the  middle  of  a  busy  term,  for  a 
report  of  a  two  weeks'  case  to  be  delivered  in  three  dayis, 
and  the  transcribing  thereof  becomes  weariness  and  vex- 
ation of  spirit  to  yourself,  while  the  unavoidable  delay  is 
liable  to  cause  great  inconvenience  to  the  party  giving 
the  order. 

To  my  mind  the  ideal  system  of  daily  copy  is  that  in 
which  a  single  stenographer  takes  the  entire  proceedings, 
while  his  assistants,  who  can  read  his  notes,  transcribe 
them  immediately,  so  that  at  night  he  has  nothing  to  do 
but  correct  their  copy.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this 


36  T  II  E     G  R  /•  (;  c;      R  E  I'  O  R  T  E  R 

method  demands  ideal  stenographers  and  ideal  assistants, 
and  people  of  that  type  do  not  exist  in  Boston.  The 
nearest  approach  I  have  ever  heard  to  such  a  system  is  in 
the  reporting  of  the  proceedings  before  committees  of  the 
British  I'aHiainrnt,  which  is  done  entirely  by  members  of 
the  Gurney  family,  descendants  of  the  originator  of  the 
Gurney  system.  The  family  has  controlled  this  branch  of 
shorthand  work  for  more  than  a  century,  and  I  am  told 
that  the  copy  goes  direct  from  the  amanuensis  to  the 
printer,  so  that  the  reporter  merely  has  to  read  the  proof. 
A  like  method  prevailed  in  the  United  States  Senate  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  the  late  Dennis  Murphy. 

Here  and  there  in  the  United  States  we  find  a  few  for- 
tunate stenographers  whose  notes  can  be  read  by  their 
assistants,  but.  as  we  all  know,  this  condition  of  things  is 
exceptional. 

Next  to  the  above  method,  the  system  used  in  the  Na- 
tional House  of  Representatives  is  the  best  I  know  of. 
Five  stenographers,  relieving  one  another  at  short  in- 
tervals, their  takes  averaging  1,100  words,  report  the  de- 
bates and  dictate  the  notes  immediately  to  graphophones, 
and  the  full  day's  proceedings  are  ready  for  the  printer 
within  half  an  hour  after  adjournment. 

My  first  daily  copy  case  was  in  the  fall  of  1887,  and  was 
handled  under  a  good  deal  of  difficulty.  It  was  a  group 
of  water  cases  against  the  town  of  Weymouth,  tried  at 
Dedham,  ten  miles  from  Boston.  With  two  other  stenog- 
raphers, each  of  us  taking  one  long  take  varying  from 
one  and  one-half  to  two  hours,  and  then  returning  to  Bos- 
ton to  dictate,  the  copy  was  ready  every  morning  for 
three  weeks  at  the  opening  of  court.  But  it  was  an  awful 
strain  for  the  last  man,  who  not  only  had  to  dictate  until 
about  midnight,  but  was  obliged  to  be  on  hand  with  the 
others  at  8  a.  m.,  to  page  and  index  and  bind  the  copy. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  "7 

"VYe  never  thought  at  that  time  of  buying  paper  ready 
punched,  or  even  of  providing  uniform  paper  for  the 
case ;  so  each  man  used  whatever  paper  came  handy,  and 
it  was  a  grand  scramble  in  the  morning  to  punch  two  or 
three  hundred  pages  with  some  frightfully  dull  punches. 
How  we  came  to  be  so  stupid  has  been  a  marvel  to  me 
ever  since. 

It  was  the  spring  of  1890  that  the  idea  occurred  to  me 
of  adapting  the  system  used  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives at  Washington  to  the  furnishing  of  speedy  tran- 
scripts. I  had  been  engaged  by  a  press  syndicate  to  fur- 
nish reports  of  certain  bribery  investigations  which  were 
going  on  at  the  State  House,  and  the  frequent  delivery  of 
copy  in  instalments  to  catch  the  afternoon  editions  was 
imperative.  Getting  permission  to  put  our  machines  in  a 
committee  room,  I  secured  two  stenographers  and  three 
typewriter  operators,  and  by  taking  short  takes  we  were 
enabled  to  keep  up  very  nearly  with  the  proceedings 
through  the  session.  The  success  of  the  plan  was  evident 
at  once.  The  relief  from  the  mental  strain  of  a  long  time 
spent  in  dictation  after  a  long  take  was  very  marked,  and 
the  satisfaction  of  the  parties  for  whom  the  work  was 
done  was  complete. 

Having  thus  looked  over  the  history  of  the  introduction 
of  this  method  of  furnishing  daily  copy,  a  brief  outline  of 
the  detail  of  the  system  in  actual  operation  may  be  useful. 
At  the  opening  of  each  day's  session  the  stenographer  in 
charge  gives  directions  to  his  assistants  as  to  the  order  in 
which  they  are  to  begin  their  work.  The  first  stenog- 
rapher takes  enough  notes  to  fill  as  nearly  as  possible  two 
pages  of  copy.  The  second  reporter  sits  beside  him,  and 
at  a  signal  given  by  a  nod  begins  writing  at  the  instant 
that  the  first  man  stops.  The  third  reporter  follows  in 
like  manner  after  a  space  of  about  five  minutes,  when  he 


448574 


38  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

is  relieved.  The  fourth  reporter  continues  his  take  until 
No.  1  has  dictated  and  compared  his  notes  and  has  re- 
turned to  relieve  him.  So  the  work  goes  on,  the  stenog- 
raphers succeeding  each  other  in  regular  rotation.  Un- 
less the  testimony  goes  in  with  great  rapidity  it  is  usually 
practicable  to  complete  the  transcript  of  a  take  and  be 
ready  to  return  to  the  court  in  one 's  regular  turn  in  such 
time  that  no  take  will  exceed  ten  minutes.  Of  course, 
great  care  must  be  taken  in  changing  places,  and  no  one 
should  stop  taking  notes  until  he  sees  that  the  man  who 
follows  him  is  beginning  to  write.  While  a  ruling  on  the 
admission  of  testimony  is  pending,  the  stenographer  who 
took  the  question  under  discussion  should  not  leave  the 
courtroom  until  the  ruling  is  made,  so  that  he  may  be  on 
hand  to  read  the  question  if  called  upon ;  unless  the  dis- 
cussion is  manifestly  going  to  be  a  prolonged  one,  when 
he  may  write  the  question  in  longhand  and  leave  it  for  his 
successor  to  read. 

It  is  necessary  to  have  cool-headed  stenographers  and 
typewriter  operators,  who  can  work  in  the  midst  of  a  noise 
like  that  of  a  sawmill;  for  it  is  usually  practicable  to  se- 
cure only  one  room  in  the  courthouse,  and,  indeed,  it  is 
much  more  convenient  to  have  all  the  corps  near  together. 
The  assistant  who  is  employed  to  attend  to  the  clerical  part 
of  the  work  should  be  a  person  of  executive  ability,  strict- 
ly accurate  at  figures,  and  capable  of  attending  to  in- 
numerable details  without  getting  "rattled."  Preferably 
she  should  be  a  typewriter  operator,  so  that  she  may  as- 
sist in  making  corrections  or  any  other  work  that  an 
emergency  may  demand.  At  the  beginning  of  each  day 
she  prepares  in  a  book  which  she  keeps  for  the  purpose  a 
blank  form  in  which  the  details  of  the  day's  work  are  to 
be  entered.  In  the  first  column  she  enters  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  by  which  the  various  takes  are  to  be  in- 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  39 

dicated.  The  next  column  is  kept  for  the  reporters,  the 
third  for  the  hour  and  minute  at  which  they  go  to  the 
courtroom  to  begin  their  several  takes,  and  the  fourth 
column  for  the  number  of  words  in  the  take.  Each  man 
(or  woman)  should  register  his  name  in  the  book  as  he 
starts  to  take  his  place  in  the  courtroom,  and  should  then 
enter  in  his  own  notebook  the  letter  designating  that 
place.  If  this  is  neglected  there  is  liable  to  be  delay  and 
confusion  in  finding  out  whether  Jones'  take  follows 
Smith's,  or  whether  Smith  relieved  Brown.  The  assistant 
must  enter  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  each  take  and 
keep  a  careful  eye  on  the  clock,  and  if  the  stenographer 
on  duty  is  going  to  be  left  in  court  more  than  ten  minutes 
she  must  order  the  next  man  to  relieve  him  promptly,  even 
though  his  own  take  may  not  be  fully  dictated. 

As  soon  as  a  take  is  written  out  it  should  be  immediate- 
ly compared  with  the  notes,  and  while  the  stenographer 
who  took  it  is  in  court  his  typewriter  should  make  the 
correction  and  count  the  words.  Of  course,  in  long  takes 
the  number  of  words  can  be  estimated  with  substantial 
accuracy.  Delay  in  correcting  a  single  take  may  set  back 
the  putting  together  of  the  copy  an  hour  or  more.  When 
corrected  the  copy  is  turned  over  to  the  assistant  and  the 
number  of  words  entered  in  her  book,  and  as  early  in  the 
day  as  possible  the  assistant  should  begin  assorting  and 
paging  the  copy.  The  shape  in  which  it  comes  to  her  will 
be  about  like  this :  Brown  having  the  first  take,  turns  in 
pages  1A  and  2A.  Smith,  who  follows  him,  has  pages  IB, 
2B  and  3B,  which  will  be  repaged  3,  4  and  5.  Then  comes 
Jones,  with  1C,  2C  and  3C,  which  become  6,  7  and  8,  and 
Williams,  the  fourth  man,  ID,  2D,  3D  and  4D,  renum- 
bered 9,  10,  11  and  12.  Brown  goes  in  again  for  the  E 
take,  his  pages  being  all  marked  E ;  and  for  this  take  he 
very  likely  gets  5  pages,  which  will  be  numbered  from  13 


40  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


to  17  inclusive.  Then  Smith  takes  his  turn  with  IF  to  5F 
inclusive,  or  18  to  22.  So  the  work  proceeds  through  the 
clay.  Of  course,  great  care  is  necessary  <m  the  part  of  the 
assistant  to  avoid  mixing  takes.  The  typewriter  should 
page  her  copy  in  the  upper  lel't-hand  corner,  adding  the 
stenographer's  initials,  which  is  of  great  assistance  in 
avoiding  mistakes  in  the  proper  order  of  takes  and  in 
identifying  the  copy  afterwards. 

The  covers  should  be  prepared  the  first  thing  in  the 
morning.  Sometimes  the  covers  are  printed,  or  a  rublier 
stamp  may  be  made  with  the  title  of  the  case.  Rubber 
type  would  be  convenient  for  this  purpose.  Rubber 
stamps  to  mark  the  copies  "The  Court,"  "Government" 
and  "Defense"  before  they  are  delivered  are  useful,  and 
a  rubber  dating  stamp  is  also  convenient.  Attorneys  usu- 
ally like  to  have  the  date,  together  with  the  day  of  the 
week,  conspicuously  marked  at  the  top  of  the  cover,  and 
the  number  of  the  volume  in  large  figures  at  the  upper 
left-hand  corner.  Attention  to  these  details  will  save  a 
great  amount  of  time  and  confusion  in  the  course  of  a  long 
trial,  when  the  record  is  spread  over  many  volumes.  A\Y 
usually  page  the  copy  in  pencil:  a  numbering  machine 
makes  a  neater  page,  but  takes  more  time.  The  paging  is 
usually  carried  on  consecutively  through  the  case,  so  that 
if  the  entire  report  is  to  be  permanently  bound,  repaging 
will  not  be  needed. 

The  marking  of  exhibits  is  important  and  troublesome. 
A  list  should  be  made  as  fast  as  they  are  put  in  and 
should  be  left  lying  on  the  stenographer's  table,  so  that 
each  man  may  always  know  what  the  next  number  is.  (To 
show  how  far  we  come  from  reaching  the  ideal.  I  may  as 
well  confess  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  accomplish  this 
without  some  confusion  in  any  long  case,  for  it  is  one  of 
the  hardest  things  to  remember  in  the  whole  system.)  A 


THE      GREGG     REPORTER  41 

rubber  numbering  stamp  for  marking-  the  exhibits,  with 
the  number  either  changing  automatically  or  changed  by 
turning  a  wheel,  is  of  great  assistance. 

Following  these  rules,  copy  can  be  ready  for  delivery,  if 
required,  at  the  opening  of  the  afternoon  session.  But, 
for  the  sake  of  your  digestion  and  peace  of  mind,  don't 
undertake  to  do  it  unless  insisted  upon.  It  is  much  better 
for  the  stenographers  to  go  to  lunch  promptly  at  1  p.  m. 
and  deliver  the  entire  day's  proceedings  in  one  volume  at 
night.  There  is  no  trouble  ordinarily  in  turning  in  the 
whole  report,  perhaps  200  pages,  in  an  hour  to  an  hour 
and  a  half  after  adjournment.  A  day's  work  in  a  capital 
trial  in  this  state  often  amounts  to  53,000  words.  The 
hours  are  ordinarily  from  9  a.  m.  to  1  p.  m.  and  from  2 :15 
to  5  p.  m.,  .with  a  short  recess  in  the  middle  of  each  ses- 
sion. From  the  length  of  the  session  it  will  be  seen  that  it 
would  not  be  practicable  to  do  as  is  often  done  in  New 
York,  where  one  man  takes  the  whole  report  and  dictates 
to  shorthand  amanuenses  afterwards.  Somehow  or  other, 
it  is  not  practicable  in  Massachusetts  to  get  perfectly  re- 
liable shorthand  amanuenses  for  the  transcribing  of  court 
notes.  As  soon  as  they  become  sufficiently  expert  they 
are  usually  able  to  get  all  the  court  reporting  they  want 
to  do  themselves. 


REPORTING  THE  NATIONAL 
CONVENTIONS 

By  G.  Russell  Leonard 


(Reprinted  from  the  Phonographic  Magazine) 


WAS  engaged  last  January  by  the  Associated 
Press  to  organize  a  corps  of  stenographers  to  fur- 
nish a  verbatim  report  of  both  the  Republican 
and  Democratic  national  conventions,  the  report 
to  be  delivered  within  five  minutes  after  the  close  of  each 
session.  Accordingly  I  secured  the  services  of  four  short- 
hand writers  and  four  typewriter  operators,  all  of  them 
Chicago  men. 

Inasmuch  as  the  two  conventions  were  handled  exactly 
alike  so  far  as  the  stenographic  reporting  was  concerned, 
and  the  Republican  convention  was  so  short  and  so 
orderly  that  there  was  nothing  remarkable  about  it,  1 
shall  refer  only  to  the  work  we  did  at  the  Democratic 
convention. 

The  Democratic  National  Committee  assigned  the  Asso- 
ciated Press  two  tables  within  a  space  inclosed  by  rail- 
ings on  the  floor  of  the  hall  immediately  in  front  of  the 
platform,  and  entirely  separate  from  the  other  news- 
paper men.  The  stenographers  had  two  seats  at  one  of 
these  tables.  A  private  stairway  and  passage  led  directly 
from  this  space  under  the  platform  to  the  rear  of  the 
building,  where  there  was  a  large,  well-lighted  room  for 
the  use  of  the  stenographers,  telegraph  operators,  etc. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


NATIONAL  CONVENTION,  19O4 

STENOGRAP/tflCUREPORT  FOR  THE  ASSOCIATED  PRESS 
r>*t0     WJJ~\         |  Session. 


N 


B 


V 

^- y-fr — « 


F 
G 
H 

I 


U 


V 


J 
K 

L 
M 


w 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  ASSIGNMENT-SHEET  USED  BY  THE  ASSOCIATED   PRESS  REPORTERS  AT  THE 
NATIONAL  DEMOCRATIC  CONVENTION. 


44  T  H  E     GREGG     REPORTER 

We  endeavored  to  let  each  reporter  take  as  nearly  as 
possible  two  minutes  at  a  time.  Personally,  I  did  no  re- 
porting except  in  cases  of  emergency.  On  completing  his 
two  minutes'  take  the  reporter  was  relieved  by  the  man 
sitting  next  to  him  and  went  immediately  to  the  writing- 
room  which  I  have  described,  and.  before  beginning  to 
dictate,  wrote,  opposite  a  letter  of  the  alphabet  on  a  large 
sheet  of  paper,  his  name  and  the  name  of  the  typewriter 
operator.  Supposing  that  he  were  the  third  reporter  to 
take  on  the  session,  he  would  write  his  name  opposite  the 
letter  C,  and  the  operator  would  number  his  pages  "Cl," 
"C2,"  etc.,  putting  at  the  bottom  of  the  pa-es  "C2  i'ols." 
or  "Dl  fols,"  as  the  case  might  be. 

The  typewriting  was  done  on  Eemington  machines. 
without  ribbons,  wax  stencils  being  used,  and  those  were 
collected  from  the  different  operators  by  boys  and  run  off 
on  a  machine  capable  of  printing  150  copies  a  minute. 
Only  about  twenty-five  copies  were  used,  and  these  were 
hung  on  hooks,  and  were  called  for  by  the  various  news- 
papers entitled  to  the  use  of  them,  or  taken  by  boys  to 
the  editor  who  was  making  up  the  report  for  the  wife. 

By  these  means  we  were  able  quite  easily  to  finish  a 
verbatim  report  of  every  session  within  the  five  minutes 
allowed  us.  When  the  chairman's  gavel  announcing  the 
adjournment  of  a  session  fell,  the  last  reporter  was  half- 
way down  the  stairs  on  his  way  to  the  writing-room  with 
only  some  two  hundred  words  on  his  book  to  dictate,  as 
very  often  practically  all  that  had  been  done  during  his 
take  was  the  making  of  the  motion  to  adjourn. 

This  is  practically  the  same  way  in  which  national  con- 
ventions have  been  reported  for  the  Associated  Press  in 
previous  years,  with  the  exception  of  the  system  of  letter- 
ing the  takes,  which  was  my  own  idea,  and  which  worked 
perfectly.  In  previous  years  the  head  stenographer  as- 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  45 

signed  each  reporter  the  letters  of  his  different  takes  in 
advance,  and  the  result  was  that  very  soon  confusion 
arose  out  of  the  fact  that  for  various  reasons  the  ste- 
nographers did  not  continue  to  follow  each  other  in  the 
order  in  which  they  started  to  take.  Another  change 
which  I  made  was  the  reducing  of  the  takes  from  five 
to  two  minutes.  To  one  unacquainted  with  the  vital  im- 
portance of  time  in  newspaper  work,  this  may  seem  an 
absurdly  short  take,  but  there  were  several  times  during 
the  convention  when  it  proved  to  be  most  valuable.  Of 
course  it  was  not  always  practicable  to  keep  the  takes 
down  to  two  minutes;  in  a  great  many  instances  a  man 
had  to  take  five  minutes,  but  we  avoided  this  as  far  as 
possible.  Such  was  the  case,  for  instance,  when  the  con- 
vention was  in  an  exceedingly  excitable  condition  on  the 
announcement  of  the  receipt  of  the  Parker  telegram. 
Owing  to  the  congested  condition  of  the  aisles  and  the 
immense  size  of  the  hall,  it  was  necessary  for  more  than 
an  hour  to  keep  one  shorthand  reporter  doing  nothing, 
stationed  far  down  the  aisle,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  note 
anything  that  might  occur,  which  it  would  have  been 
absolutely  impossible  for  the  reporter  to  take  had  he 
remained  at  his  place  near  the  speaker's  platform. 

One  of  the  advantages  of  keeping  this  record  of  the 
takes  was  that  in  case  the  editor  discovered  errors  it 
was  at  once  known  who  made  them,  and  a  correction  bul- 
letin could  be  put  on  the  wire  in  a  very  few  minutes. 

The  most  arduous  session — although  they  were  all  very 
trying — was  one  which  was  called  to  order  at  five  min- 
utes after  eight  on  Friday,  July  8.  The  convention  re- 
mained in  continuous  session  until  ten  minutes  of  six 
in  the  morning,  during  most  of  which  time  the  greatest 
excitement  prevailed.  In  some  cases  it  was  actually  nec- 
essary for  the  reporters  to  jump  over  the  railings  in 


46  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

order  to  get  near  enough  to  the  speaker  to  hear  what 
he  said. 

I  want  to  mention  in  this  connect  ion  that  the  work 
which  was  done  by  the  official  reporter  for  the  conven- 
tion, my  friend  Milton  "W.  Blumenberg,  of  the  Senate 
corps  at  Washington,  was,  to  my  mind,  remarkable.  "With- 
out any  relief  at  all,  he  reported  the  entire  proceedings 
of  the  convention,  lasting  from  "Wednesday  noon  until  1 :30 
a.  in.  Sunday,  and  at  this  particular  session  was  on  his 
feet  for  practically  ten  hours.  It  was  not  possible  to 
sit  down  and  write ;  the  stenographers  had  to  lean  against 
the  platform  and  write  there,  because  they  could  not  hear 
the  speakers  from  the  seats  which  had  been  provided  for 
them. 


INDEXING  NOTES 


To  facilitate  references,  the  note-books  should  be  in- 
dexed. Mr.  Charles  C.  Beale  used  a  four-page  folder, 
printed  in  red  ink,  as  given  below.  This  Index  is  fastened 
inside  the  front  cover  of  the  note-book. 


INDEX. 


DATE 


.BEFORE 


ACTION  OF. 
VS 


PLAINTIFF'S  COUNSEL 

DEFENDANT'S  COUNSEL,. 
VERDICT, 


WITNESS 


I 


LAW  FORMS 

T  IS  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  an  acquaintance 
with  law  forms  is  essential  in.  law  reporting. 
While  this  is  true  of  law  forms  in  general,  it  is 
especially  so  in  the  malter  of  getting  out  Hie 
transcripts  of  proceedings  in  correct  form. 

There  is  a  general  resemblance  in  the  forms  used  for 
different  law  papers  in  the  various  states  and  courls,  but 
the  reporter  should  make  himself  thoroughly  familiar 
with  those  forms  lhat  are  peculiar  to  the  state  or  city 
where  he  intends  to  practice. 

If  properly  approached,  most  lawyers  will  gladly  as- 
sist an  ambitious  young  writer  by  allowing  him  to  inspect 
or  copy  the  forms  which  they  use.  In  most  public  libra- 
ries there  are  bound  volumes  of  the  printed  reports  of 
the  proceedings  in  important  law  suits. 

We  have  known  many  reporters  to  enter  upon  their 
professional  work  without  having  ever  been  inside  a  re- 
porter's office,  but  as  indicated  by  some  of  the  article0 
in  this  book,  most  reporters  have  obtained  their  first 
knowledge  of  law  forms,  and  their  skill  in  preparing 
transcripts,  by  working  as  typewriter  operators  in  the 
offices  of  busy  reporters.  Where  it  is  possible  to  secure 
such  a  position,  this  is  undoubtedly  the  best  plan  to  fol- 
low. The  publishers  of  this  book  will  gladly  offer  further 
suggestions  to  any  one  who  finds  it  difficult  to  secure  in- 
formation about  the  various  law  papers. 


Table  of  Rates  Paid  Court  Reporters  for 

Attendance  and  Transcripts  in  the 

States  of  the  Union— See  Note 


States 

Yearly   Salary 

Per  Diem 

Transcripts 
Per  Polio 

Alabama     ... 

...  $    750    

Arizona 

....  1500    

15c 

Arkansas    

....    >-00  to  1200   

5c 

California    .... 

.  .  .  .2400  to  3000   

$10.00    . 

20c 

Colorado     ... 

.  .  .  .2700    

.  .10.00    

20c 

Connecticut    .  .  . 

.  .10.00    

lOc 

Delaware     .  . 

.  .  .  *2000    

lOc 

Dist    of  Col 

.  .  .  .No  general   law  .  . 

15c  to   25c 

Florida    . 

.  .    5.00  to  6.00 

12%c 

Georgia 

....    125  to  150  per  mo 

.  .15.00    

lOc 

Hawaii 

.  .  .  .2400   to   3600    .... 

Idaho     .  . 

.  .  .  .1000    

lOc   to   15c 

Illinois 

5.00    

15c 

Indiana 

.  .    5.00    

lOc 

Iowa    ... 

.  .  .  .1600    

.  .    8.00    

8c 

Kansas 

.  .    6.00    

lOc 

Kentucky 

....  1200  to  2500   .... 

.  .    5.00    

lOc  to   15c 

Louisiana 

15c 

Maine 

....  H',00  to  1500 

lOc 

Marvlancl 

.  .  .  *2500    

8.00    

lOc 

Massachusetts    .  .  . 
Michigan 

2500    
.  .  .  .1000  to  3000   .  .  . 

.  .    9.00    

lOc 
8c 

Minnesota 

....    SCO  to  2500    .  .  . 

10  00    

Sc   to   lOc 

Mississippi 

....      40   per  week 

lOc 

Missouri      
Montana 

..,.1800    

.  .  .  }  SQO        

.  .10.00    

lOc   to   15c 
5c  to  7V&O 

Nebraska 

.  .  .  .1500    

lOc 

Nevada 

8  00    

15c 

N'fw    Hampshire 

.  .5.00  to  10.00 

lOc 

New    Jersey 

10  00    

lOc 

NVw   Mexico 

7  00    

15c 

New  York    

.  .  .  .1000  to  3000   

.10.00    

lOc   to   15c 

No.  Carolina   

"ixed  by  judge 

5c 

No.   Dakota    

fixed  by  judge 

lOc   to   15c 

Ohio     

1X00  to  2400 

8c 

Oklahoma 

5  00    

6c 

Oregon 

10  00    

15c 

Pennsylvania    .  .  . 

.  .10.00    

15c 

Rhode  Island 

10  00    

lOc 

So.   Carolina    .... 

.  .  .  .1500    

5c  to   lOc 

So.    Dakota    .... 

.  .10.00    

lOc 

Xo  general  law 

Texas    

.    5.00    . 

lOc   to   15c 

Utah 

8  00    

8c  to   lOc 

Vermont     

5c  to   lOc 

Virginia          .  .  . 

.  .  .  .No  general  law.  . 

.  .  .No  general  law.  . 

fixed  bv  judge 

20c 

Wisconsin    
Wvom  ins- 

.  ..*2000    

..lono    . 

.  .10.00    

lOc 

**15c 

Note. — The  laws  in  some  States  provide  for  salaries  in  some 
places  or  counties  and  per  diem  fees  in  others.  The  same  is  also 
true  as  to  transcript  fees.  This  accounts  for  the  varying  rates 
paid  in  the  same  States. 

•Maximum  salary. 

**Transcript  fee  paid  to  State  of  Wyoming. 


HELPFUL  BOOKS 


The  following  books  should  be  in  the  possession  of 
every  stenographer  who  aspires  to  be  a  court  reporter: 

"PRACTICAL  COURT  REPORTING,"  by  H.  W. 
Thorne.  230  pages,  cloth.  This  is  a  very  helpful  book 
on  court  reporting,  although  it  does  not  contain  any  short- 
hand forms.  A  copy  of  the  book  can  be  obtained  from,  the 
Gregg  Publishing  Company,  New  York  or  Chicago ;  price, 
$1.00,  sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  $1.10. 

"LAW  LANGUAGE,"  compiled  by  L.  N.  Dembitz.  208 
pages,  cloth.  This  book  fully  explains  the  meaning  of 
law  terms,  and  as  it  is  written  in  connected  form,  is  an 
excellent  manual  for  practice.  A  copy  of  the  book  can 
be  obtained  from  the  Gregg  Publishing  Company,  New 
York  or  Chicago;  price  $1.00,  sent  postpaid  on  receipt 
of  $1.10. 

"COURT  REPORTING."  A  manual  of  legal  dictation 
and  forms,  compiled  by  A.  M.  Robinson.  290  pages, 
cloth.  A  copy  may  be  obtained  from  the  Gregg  Publish- 
ing Company,  New  York  or  Chicago;  price,  $1.00;  sent 
postpaid  on  receipt  of  $1.10. 

"PRACTICAL  POINTERS  FOR  SHORTHAND  STU- 
DENTS," by  Frank  Rutherford.  131  pages,  cloth.  There 
are  numerous  suggestions  in  this  book  about  reporting 
and  methods  of  gaining  skill  in  shorthand  writing.  A 
copy  can  be  obtained  from  the  Gregg  Publishing  Com- 
pany, New  York  or  Chicago;  price  fifty  cents,  postpaid. 


PART  TWO 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


53 


Special  Word  Forms 

accident  f^2        devote 

o> <"       administer  f  ^^     dividend 

\ 

s 
stairs) 

ERRATA 

After  the  GREGG  REPORTER  was  printed,  and 
while  being  bound,  some  slight  inaccuracies  were  dis- 
covered, due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  shorthand  plates 
are  liable  to  damage  while  on  the  printing  press. 
Correction's,  therefore,  should  be  noted  as  follows: 

Page  83,  second  column,  fourth  outline  (counting 
from  the  bottom):  in  the  type,  for  "if  from  all  the 
evidence"  read  "if  from  the  evidence." 

Page  60,  second  column,  sixth  outline  (counting 
from  the  top):  first  stroke  should  be  "th"  instead 
of  "t." 

Page  85,   first  column,  second  outline  (counting         it 
from  the  top):   "ing"  dot  should  appear. 

THE  GREGG  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


demur                                         ^-—  lawyer 
deponent  v ^       legislate 


designate-ation  v .       legislation 

J 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


53 


Special  Word  Forms 


<=7-^ 

c? ' 

oSL- 

-? 

y 

7s 

T 
•z 

<7 


accident 

administer 

assignment 

capital 

civil 

complain 

corroborate 

coupon 

damage 


default 

(see   fault) 


defendant 
demur 
deponent 
designate-ation 


r 


V 
T 


devote 


dividend 


downstairs 

(see   upstairs) 

establish 


evidence 

fault 

future 

husband 

indictment 

judicial 

jury 

lawyer 

legislate 

legislation 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


7 


legislative 

legislator 

legislature 

live 

meanwhile 

misdemeanor 

mortgage 

mortgagee 

mortgagor 

night 

occupy-ation 

part 


persecute 

(see    prosecute) 


plaintiff 
prejudice 
preponderance 
prior 


reasonable 


reside 


resignation 


separate 


several 

(see   civil) 

sidewalk 


street   car 


testimony 


tonight 


upstairs 

(see  downstairs) 


wife 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


WORD  AND  PHRASE  MODIFICATIONS 

N  law  work  and  court  reporting,  as  in  commercial 
work,  the  shorthand  forms  for  many  frequently 
occurring  words  and  phrases  are  contracted  or 
modified.  In  our  shorthand  Manual  we  said,  "In 
your  daily  work  as  stenographer  or  reporter  you  will  find 
some  terms  peculiar  to  the  business  in  which  you  are  en- 
gaged so  frequently  occurring  that  special  forms  may  be 
adopted  for  them  which  will  be  brief  and  yet  absolutely 
distinctive." 

As  Mr.  George  R.  Bishop  well  says,  "Every  law  stenog- 
rapher of  large  experience  knows  that  each  branch  of  the 
law— patent,  criminal,  probate,  medico-jurisprudential, 
admiralty,  corporation,  commercial,  etc. — has  many  words 
and  phrases  peculiarly  its  own ;  and  as  lawyers  in  the 
great  cities  drift  much  into  specialties,  so  there  is  a  ten- 
dency, in  those  places,  for  stenographers  to  do  the  same ; 
the  chances,  of  course,  being,  all  other  qualifications  being 
equal,  that  that  stenographer  who  has  the  largest  experi- 
ence in  connection  with  any  particular  specialty  will — 
especially  if  the  matter  be  difficult — make  the  best  report 
of  any  proceedings  in  that  particular  department  of  the 
law." 

Some  years  ago  a  writer  in  the  Phonographic  Magazine 
expressed  a  similar  thought  in  this  forceful  way : 

"If  the  stenographer  be  improperly  educated  or  if  he 
lack  in  originality,  he  will  be  apt  to  confine  his  phrase 
and  wordsign  writing  simply  to  those  forms  which  he  has 
committed  to  memory  in  the  course  of  his  instruction,  en- 
tirely disregarding  the  opportunities  which  present  them- 
selves for  showing  his  capacity  for  invention  or  the  ap- 
plication of  recognized  principles  to  the  formation  of  new 
forms  and  signs  which  necessity  requires.  Not  one-fourth 


56  THE     GREGG     REPORTER 

of  the  commercial  stenographers  are  equal  to  the  occasion 
when  this  point  presents  itself,  but  will  persevere  through 
long  months  and  years  in  elaborating  painfully  long  word- 
forms  and  in  disregarding  very  apparent  opportunities 
for  the  formation  of  very  concise  phrases,  by  means  of 
which  a  great  proportion  of  their  labor  might  be  saved. 
The  intelligent  stenographer  certainly  should  not  permit 
himself  to  follow  and  become  confirmed  in  such  a  habit, 
simply  because  he  is  unwilling  to  exercise  his  own  powers 
of  invention.  Because  'the  book'  gives  no  brief  outline 
for  a  word  which  constantly  recurs  in  his  work,  is  no  rea- 
son why  he  should  not  use  one  and  the  very  briefest  which 
is  consistent  with  principles.  Because  he  does  not  find 
specific  authority  for  the  joining  of  certain  often-repealed 
words  in  a  phrase  form  is  no  argument  against  his  adop- 
tion of  such  a  form  if  it  is  easily  legible.  It  will  be  a 
genuine  surprise  to  the  writer  to  discover  how  much  of  a 
labor-saver  his  own  ingenuity  may  become." 

Before  beginning  to  practice  the  phrases  and  modifica- 
tions of  word-forms  given  in  this  chapter,  we  advise  the 
reader  to  earnestly  study  and  practice  the  advanced 
phrase  writing  given  in  the  shorthand  manual,  especially 
the  section  devoted  to  "Modification  of  Word  Forms." 
Nearly  all  of  the  phrases  contained  in  that  section  are 
frequently  used  in  court  reporting.  Some  of  the  follow- 
ing forms  have  already  been  given,  but  we  have  thought  it 
advisable  in  some  instances  to  refresh  the  memory  of  the 
amanuensis  who  is  aiming  to  become  a  court  reporter  by 
repeating  the  principles,  and  then  making  the  rules  or 
principles  of  abbreviation  so  repeated  the  basis  of  more 
extended  application. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


57 


DEPARTMENT 

£> 

Passenger  De-                     ^^ 
partment 

'"     Mail  Order  De- 
partment 

£* 

Freight  Depart-                       ^^ 
ment 

"     State  Depart- 
ment 

^ 

General  Passen-                    ^V^* 
ger  Depart- 
ment 

Post  Office  Depart- 
ment 

^ 

General   Freight                   '^~^' 
Department 

Treasury  Depart- 
ment 

V 

War  Department                   ^2^ 

Executive  De- 
partment 

~ 

Navy  Depart-                          dl 
ment                                            /^ 

Purchasing  De- 
partment 

—s~7*>   ^r 

Inquiry  Depart-                       ^^ 

ment                                        ^ 

Shipping  Depart- 
ment 

Legal  Departmen 


Fire  Department 


Police  Depart- 
ment 


Credit  Depart-  ^>- 

ment  *^ 

AGENT 

Passenger  Agent  ^^ 


Freight  Agent 


General  Passenger 
Agent  (G.P.A.) 


General  Freight 
Agent  (G.F.A.) 


Assistant  General 
Passenger  Agent 
(A.G.P.A.) 

Assistant  General 
Freight  Agent 
(A.G.F.A.) 


Shoe  Depart- 
ment 


Furniture  Depart- 
ment 


Ticket  Agent 


General  Ticket 
Agent 


Claim  Agent 
Baggage  Agent 
Purchasing  Agent 


r>s 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


COMPANY 

and  Company 
Railroad  Company 
Express  Company 


Transportation 
Company 


Telephone  Com- 
pany 

Electric  Company 


? 
^ 

t 


Insurance  Com-  ' 5-->         Trust  Company 

pany 

REASONABLE 

reasonable  doubt  ^-2^  reasonable  care 


beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt 


reasonable  time 


reasonable  dili- 
gence 


reasonable  satis- 
faction 


PLAINTIFF-DEFENDANT 

the  plaintiff 


reasonable  degree 


reasonable  degree 
of  care 


reasonable  notice 


the  defendant 


for  the  plaintiff 


for  the  defendant 


counsel  for  the 
plaintiff 


counsel  for  the  de- 
fendant 


do  you  know  the 
plaintiff 


do  you  know  the 
the  defendant 


called  for  the 
plaintiff 


called  for  the 
defendant 


did  you  see  the 
plaintiff 


did  you  see  the 
defendant 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


59 


DON'T 

<3  I  don' t  see  ^*v — ' 


I  don't  believe 


& 


I  don't  know 


I  don't  recollect 


I  don't  think 

WHETHER 

whether  or  not 


I  don't  remember 


can  you  tell 

whether  or  not 


do  y»u  remember 
whether 


can  you  state 
whether  or  not 


do  you  remember 
whether  or  not 


can  you  recollect 
whether  or  not 


do  you  recollect 
whether  or  not 


I  do  not  recollect 
whether  or  not 


DO  YOU  KNOW 


do  you  know 


do  you  not  recol- 
lect whether  or 
not 


do  you  know  the 
defendant 


do  you  know 
whether  or  not 


do  you  know 
what 


do  you  know 
whether  there 


do  you  know  what 
was 


do  you  know  the 
plaintiff 


DO   YOU  NOT 


do  you  not 
recollect 


do  you  not  recol- 
lect whether 
or  not 

do  you  not  re- 
member 


do  you  know 
which 


do  you  not  re- 
member wheth- 
er or  not 

do  you  not  think 


do  you  not  recall 


60 


T  I!  E     G  RKGG     REPORTER 


WASN'T— ISN'T 

The  shorthand  form  for  "wasn't"  is  facile,  and  pro- 
vides a  distinction  between  "in"  and  "not" — although 
such  distinction  is  rarely  necessary. 


wasn't 


there  wasn't 


he  wasn't  there 


wasn't  he  there 


wasn't    the 
plaintiff 


it  wasn't 


there  wasn't  any 


wasn't  the  de- 
fendant 


it  isn't 


it  isn't  there 


it  wasn't  there  ., 

WHERE 

where  it  is 
where  it  was 
where  did  you  see 


where  did  you 
see  him 


PART—  PARTY 


party  of  the  first 
part 


party  of  the 
second  part 


party  of  the 
third  part 


ti 


there  isn't 


where  did  you 
leave  him 


about  where  it 
was 


where  it  would 


where  it  lay 


said  party  of  the 
first  part 


said  party  of  the 
second  part 


said  party  of 
the  third  part 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


61 


tor  my  own  part 

on  my  part 

• 
on  my  own  part 

I  had 

they  had 
we  had 
you  had 
he  had 


y£-          Republican  party 
/**•  Democratic  party 


Socialist  party 


HAD 


&(  I  had  been 

'***(  they  had  been 


he  had  been 


<^f  we  had  been 

if  you  had 


if  they  had 


is  it  a  fact 


FACT 


is  it  not  a  fact 


isn't  it  a  fact 


I  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  fact 


you  are  aware 
of  the  fact 


were  you  aware 
of  the  fact 


well-known  fact 


if  I  had 


point  of  fact 


2 — eS~>     as  a  matter  of 
fact 


in  view  of  the  fact 


in  consideration 
of  the  fact 


did  you  for  a  fact 


^Z/S     yes  sir,  I  did  for  a 
fact 


THE  GREGG  REPORTER 


WAY  OR  AWAY 


did  you  remain 
away 

how  far  away 


run  away 

did  he  get  away 

HOUSE 

the  house 
this  house 
warehouse 
which  house 
in  which  house 
when  the  house 

AVENUE 

Michigan  Avenue 
Central  Avenue 


KNOWLEDGE 


to  the  best  of 
(my,  your) 
knowledge 

have  you  any 
knowledge 


— «^-<S  in  what  way 

*^^_  that  is  the  way 

<^  which  Is  the  way 

^^  right  of  way 

—si?       in  the  house 
_  in  his  house 

^          at  his  house 
our  house 
at  our  house 
from  the  house 


Wabash  Avenue 


Washington  Ave- 
nue 


of  your  own 
knowledge 


not  to  my  knowl- 
edge 


-y 
' 


from  your  own 
knowledge 


not  to  my  own 
knowledge 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


63 


SECRETARY 


Secretary  of  State 


Secretary  of  War 


Secretary  of  the 
Interior 


THERE  WERE 


there  were 


Secretary  of  the 
Treasury 


Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture 


there  were  many 


there  were  not  ^5 

WHEN  DID  YOU 

when  did  you  go  =^? 


there  were  so 
many 


when  did  you  see 


when  did  you  give 


when  did  you 
write 


said  day 


SAID 


when  did  you  see 
him 


when  did  you  tell 


at  the  said  time 


said  date 
said  deed 
the  said  land 
greater  than 
longer  than 


THAN 


the  said  party  of 
the  first  part 


the  said  party  of 
the  second  part 


said  copy 


better  than 


nearer  than 


shorter  than 


quicker  than 


larger  than 


lower  than 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


HOLDER 


stockholder 
bondholder 

OTHER 

somehow  or  other 
some  way  or  other 
something  or  other 

SO 

and  if  so 


day  or  so 


IN-LAW 


father-in-law  f 

\ — -r~ 

mother-in-la\v  ..^> 

daughter-in-law 

ABBREVIATIONS 

A.M.  ^ 


6  shareholder 


policy  holder 


somewhere  or 
other 


one  way  or  the 

other 


one  side  or  other 


to  do  so 


you  say  so 


brother-in-law 


sister-in-law 


P.M. 


A.  D. 


2. 


C.  O.  D. 


f.  o.  b. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  65 

FIGURES,  ETC. 

Mi  ANY  young  reporters  do  not  realize  the  importance 
I  of  a  rapid  and  accurate  method  of  representing 
figures.  Some  reporters  use  a  system  of  "short- 
hand numerals,"  but  as  the  slightest  variation  in 
the  size  or  shape  of  a  shorthand  character  might  have  dis- 
astrous results,  it  is  well  to  be  cautious  about  adopting 
such  expedients.  As  Mr.  Thorne  says,  "No  system  of 
shorthand  numerals  has  yet  been  devised  which  has  given 
universal  satisfaction.  While,  in  some  instances,  law  re- 
porters have  successfully  -utilized  shorthand  for  this  pur- 
pose, yet  the  Arabic  figures  continue  prime  favorites.  The 
latter  are  often  helpful  in  finding  desired  parts  of  testi- 
mony." 

It  should  always  be  kept  in  mind  that  there  is  no  con- 
text to  guide  the  writer  in  dealing  with  figures.  They 
should,  therefore,  be  written  clearly,  and  if  possible  in 
such  a  way  that  they  may  be  easily  found  in  hurriedly  re- 
ferring back  to  the  notes.  Some  reporters  adopt  the  plan 
of  writing  the  numerals  very  large,  while  others  encircle 
figures  when  they  stand  alone.  The  latter  is  a  good  plan 
to  adopt  where  one  or  two  figures  only  are  used,  as  some 
numerals  (notably  "1"  and  "6")  resemble  shorthand 
characters. 

In  any  event,  some  time  should  be  given  to  practice  on 
the  numerals  with  a  view  to  acquiring  facility  in  writing 
them  legibly.  In  writing  the  numerals  all  unnecessary 
movements  should  be  eliminated. 

The  method  of  representing  dollars,  hundred,  thousand, 
million,  pounds — -as  well  as  all  possible  combinations  of 
these  words — given  in  the  Manual  has  never  been  equaled 
for  simplicity  and  definiteness.  It  requires  but  a  moment 
to  master  the  plan,  but  on  account  of  its  simplicity  it  does 


60 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


not  usually  receive  enough  attention  or  practice.  We  ad- 
vise the  young  reporter  to  drill  on  every  possible  varia- 
tion of  the  words  and  figures. 

Examples 


-, 


$6.00 

$3,000 

8,000,000 

2,000,000,000 

a  dollar 

a  million 

600 

300,000 

$8,000,000 


4  Ibs.or  £4 

a  pound 

a  hundred  dollars 

$600.00 

$300,000 

800,000,000 

300  Ibs.  or  £300 


z—  a  hundred 


a.  hundred  million 


In  recording  mixed  figures  it  is  well  to  make  free  use 
of  the  above  method  of  expressing  million,  thousand,  etc., 
instead  of  trying  to  use  the  comma  as  a  dividing  mark. 
For  instance,  to  express  "two  million,  nine  hundred  thou- 
sand and  forty-seven"  write  3~ j^_  ^7  ,  just  as  the 

speaker  utters  the  words.    There  will  then  be  no  danger 
of  confusion. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  67 

SHORTHAND  NUMERALS,  ETC. 

1  -a_^»     1  OF  2 

2  or  3 


3  or  4 


J     4 
^ 
X 


or  5 


5  or  6 


7 


G  or  7 


7  or  8 


S  or  9 


9  or  10 


^       10 

If  ordinary  numerals  are  used,  "or"  may  be  expressed 
by  writing  the  second  figure  below  the  preceding  one, 
thus  ^  seven  or  eight. 

Hundredweights  is  expressed  by  Nw;  cents  by  S  above 
figure ;  per  cent  by  S  below  figure ;  per  cent  per  annum  by 
adding  N  to  per  cent  sign:  o'clock  by  0  over  preceding 
figure. 

Examples 

f          8  cwts. 

/*  7  per  cent  per  an- 
JL.  num 

"7*          seven  cents 

&  "  nine  o'clock 

•*7  seven  per  cent 


68 


^ 

square  yard 

^^-^^  per  square  yard 

^ 

square  foot 

^*-j         per  square  foot 

"-> 

square  inch 

*—?—,         per  square  inch 

-*/ 

cubic  yard 

Degrees  may  be  expressed  in  the  usual  way  by  the 
small  circle  after  the  figure  :/T-°  12  degrees.  Fahrenheit 
may  be  expressed  by  f  :°r^^54  degrees  Fahrenheit.  Cen- 
tigrade may  be  expressed  by  sen:  ^^_  8  degrees  centi- 
grade. 


T  If  E     GREGG     REPORTER 


69 


ENCIRCLING  OUTLINES,  ETC. 

ANY  expert  writers  make  it  a  practice  to  encircle 
certain  outlines  to  express  the  actions  of  the  wit- 
ness, counsel  or  speaker.  This  serves  to  separate 
the  words  uttered  by  the  speaker  from  his  actions, 
and  at  the  same  time  furnishes  a  landmark,  as  it  were,  in 
the  notes  which  facilitates  reference  in  reading  back  any 
portion  of  the  report. 


(illustrating) 


(indicating) 


(witness,  or  coun- 
sel, produces 
paper) 

witness,  or  coun- 
sel, produces 
book 

(handing  a  paper 
to  the  witness) 


(witness,  or  coun- 
sel, refers  to 
paper) 

(witness,  or  coun- 
sel refers  to 
book) 

"if  you  find  from 
the  evidence"  (a 
phrase  common- 
ly used  in 
charges  to  the 
jury) 


Repetition  of 
words  used  in 
question  or  an- 
swer 


(handing  a  paper 
to  the  Court) 


(handing  a  paper 
to  Mr.  Jones) 


(handing  a  paper 
to  counsel  for 
the  defendant) 

(handing  a  naper 
to  counsel  for 
the  plaintiff) 

objected  to 


question  by  a 
juror 


indicating  omis- 
sion 


cheers 
applause 
loud  applause 


laughter 


70 


T  II  E     C,  R  EG  G     REPORTER 


POINTS  OF  THE  COMPASS,  ETC. 

In  reporting  matters  relating  to  real  estate,  the  follow- 
ing contractions  will  be  found  very  useful: 


North 
South 
East 
West 
Northeast 
Southeast 
Northwest 
Southwest 
Northeast  quarter 
Southeast  quarter 
Northwest  quarter 
Southwest  quarter 
Northern 
Southern 
Eastern 


«£-  — 


Western 

Northerly 

Southerly 

Easterly 

Westerly 

Northeasterly 

Southeasterly 

Northwesterly 

Southwesterly 

Northeastern 

Southeastern 

Northwestern 

Southwestern 

Northeastward 

Southeastward 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  71 

Northward  y^-       Southwestward 

Southward  ~^i    North  or  south 

Eastward  §>          East  or  west 

-^ 

Westward  p          Base  and  Meridian 


—  -= 


_ 

Northwestward  ~    Principal  Meridian 


72 


T  II  R      (',  R  1:  (',  (',      R  /•  /'  0  A'  T  /•  A' 


SPECIAL    PHRASES 

0  facilitate  reference  to  the  testimony,  it  is  de- 
sirable to  use  a  large  "X"  I'm1  "Gross-Examina- 
tion." When  the  "X"  is  preceded  by  the  short- 
hand character  for  D  it  expresses  "Direct  Exam- 
ination;" by  Re-d,  "Redirect  Examination;"  by  Re,  "Re- 
cross  Examination." 


Cross-Examina- 
tion 


Direct  Examina- 
tion 


Redirect  Examina- 
tion 


Uecrnss  Kxamina- 
tion 


The  words  incompetent,  immaterial,  irrelevant,  illegal, 
improper,  are  constantly  occurring  in  court  work,  as  when 
counsel  objects  to  the  testimony  of  the  witness  as  being 
"incompetent,  immaterial  and  irrelevant."  It  is  im- 
portant that  the  reporter  should  be  able  to  deal  with 
these  words  promptly  in  whatever  sequence  they  may  be 
used.  We  recommend  the  following  method  of  represent- 
ing these  words — to  be  used,  of  course,  only  where  they 
occur  in  succession  and  can,  therefore,  be  joined. 


incompetent 


illegal 


immaterial 


irrelevant 


Illustrations 


incompetent,  im- 
material and  ir- 
relevant 

irrelevant,  incom- 
petent and  im- 
material 

Illegal,  incompe- 
tent, immaterial 
and  irrelevant 


improper 


l,  incompe- 
tent. Immaterial, 
improper  and  ir- 
relevant 

immaterial  and  ir- 
n  levant 

irrelevant,  imma- 
terial and  in- 
competent 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


73 


Similarly,  the  words  heirs,  executors,  administrators, 
assigns,  successors,  frequently  occur  in  succession  in  law 
work.  The  following  method  of  representing  them  is 
very  facile,  but  like  the  preceding  one,  can  be  used  only 
in  phrases.  The  units  are : 


heirs 


assigns 


executors 


successors 


administrators 


Illustrations 


heirs,  executors, 
administrators 
and  assigns 

heirs,  executors, 
administrators 
or  assigns 

successors  and  as- 
signs 


successors  or  as- 
signs 


heirs  and  assigns 


•heirs,  executors 
or  administra- 
tors 


Omit  and,  but  insert  or. 


List  of  Phrases 


about  how  long 


again  and  again 


about  the  time 


about  what  time 


about  what  time 
of  day 


about  wliat  time 
of   night 


against  the  de- 
fendant 


against  the 
plaintiff 


all  may  be 


and  I  am 


about  where  it 
was 


and  I  may 


above  mentioned 


above  named 


-^x 


Mini  if  so 


above  named 
defendant 


above  named 
plaintiff 


and  sworn 


anyone  else 


A- 


according  to 
(pronoun)   rec- 
ollection 

according  to 
(pronoun)   best 
recollection 

act  of  God 


adjourned  meet- 
ing 


anything  of  the 
kind 


are  not 


are  you  ac- 
quainted   with 


are  you  ac- 
quainted   with 
him 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


75 


are  you  ac- 
quainted   with 
the  defendant 

are  you  familiar 


as  it  would  be 


as  long  as 


are  you  sure 


as  many  as 


are  you  willing1 


as  much  as 


are  you  willin 
to    swear 


as  near  as 


as  a  matter  of 
course 


as  near  as  (pro- 
noun) can 


as  a  matter  cf 
fact 


as  a  matter  of 
law 


as  far  as 


as  near  as  (pro- 
noun) can 
judge 


as  near  as  (pro- 
noun) can  tell 


as  far  as  I  am 
concerned 


as  far  as  (pro- 
noun)   can 


as  far  as  (pro- 
noun) recol- 
lect 

as  fast  as 


as  near  as  (pro- 
noun) could 

judge 

as  near  as  (pro- 
noun) can  recol- 
lect 

as  quick  as 


as   quickly  as 


as  fast  as  (pro- 
noun) can 


-V 


as  soon  as 


as  high  as 


as  soon  as   (pro- 
noun) can 


as  is 


as  it  is 


"V 


as   the   case   may 
be 


as    they    are 


76 


T  HE     GREGG     RE  FOR  T  /•  A' 


2- 


as  they  will 
as  they  will  be 
as  there 
as  there  is 
as  well  as 


as  well  as  (pro- 
noun) can 


at  all  events 
at  all  times 
at  any  rate 
at  any  time 
at  any  one  time 
at  that  time 
at  the  same  time 
at  the  time 
at  what  rate 
at  what  rate  of 


—  p, 


/ 

?><7 


f 


because  of  the  fact 


before  or  after 


being  duly  sworn 
and  examined 


being-  first  duly 
sworn 


being1  first  duly 
sworn  and  ex- 
amined 

be  it  remembered 


between  the  rom- 
plainant  and 

defendant 

between    the    par- 
ties 


between  them 


^^ 


at  what  time 


between  us 


beyond  a  reason- 
able doubt 


bill  of  particulars 


bill  of  sale 


brother-in-law 


brought  to  my  at- 
tention 


burden  of  proof 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


77 


C-r 


by  any  means 


oan  you  not  recol- 
lect 


by  no  means 


can  you  not  re- 
member 


by  the  learned 
counsel  for  the 
defendant 

by  the  learned 
counsel  for  the 
plaintiff 

by  the  time 


can  you  not  say 


can  you  recollect 


can  you  recollect 
whether  or  not 


by  the  witness 


by  the  witness 
on  the  stand 


by  this  action 
by  this  court 


can  you  not  recol- 
lect whether  or 
not 

oan  you  recollect 
whether  there 
was 

can  you  recollect 
whether  there 
were 

can  you  remember 


by  you 


can  you  remember 
whether  or  not 


call  the  attention 
of  the  Court 


can  you  tell 


call  the  attention 
of  your  Honor 


can  you  tell 

whether  or  not 


call  your  atten- 
tion  to  the  fact 


can  it  be  possible 
can  it  possibly 
cannot  say 


can  you  state 
whether  or  not 


circumstances   of 
the  case 


circumstantial 
evidence 


can  you  not 


common  law 


78 


THd     GREGG     REPORTER 


conflicting1  testi- 
mony 


contributory    neg- 
ligence 


consider  the 

weight    of    the 
testimony 

constitution  of  the 
United  States 


cross  examination 


'lid  he  run  away 


did  I  understand 
you  to  say 


did  you  ever 


describe  to  the 
jury 


did  he  get  away 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


79 


did  you  not  say  to                 C 
me 

*> 

&        do  you  believe 

^~? 

did  you  not  state 

X 

.  —  ^~~-        do  you  belong 

X"^                           did  you  remain                    ^ 
away 

.X 

^/           do  you  ever 

X^ 
did  you  see                           X" 

/             do  you  have 

X'^                           did*  you  see  him                  X^ 

do  you  know  any- 
thing 

,X^                        did  you  see  the  de-          /^~* 

fendant 

do  you  know    de- 
fendant 

X^                         did  vou  see  the                    ' 
plaintiff 

T 

do  you  know 
plaintiff 

s'                         did  you  tell                         (^ 

s 

do  you  know 
whether 

X^                       did  you  tell  him               s 

do  you  know 
whether  or  not 

^^^                       did  you  tell  me                   X^ 

do  you  know 
whether  there 

X^                        did  you  turn                       X^° 

P^           do  you  know 
whether  there  is 

^X^                       did  you  turn  away          X* 

sa^f          do  you  know 
whether  there 

was 

s'  /\              direct  examina-                 ^-e. 
tion                                     ^ 

^»           do  you  know 
whether  there 

\vm*e 

direct  testimony 


documentary  evi- 
dence 


does  order,  ad- 
judge and  de- 
cree 

doth  order,  ad- 
judge and  de- 
cree 


do  you  live 


do  you  mean  by 
that 


do  you  mean  to 
say 


do  you  not  recol- 
lect 


80 


'/•  HE     (~,  R  I:.G  G     REPORTER 


do  you  not  ree.,1 
lect  whether  or 
not 

do  you  not  recol- 
lect whether 
there 

do  you  not  remem- 


execute  and  de. 
liver 


extra  session 


f'ntlier-in-law 


d«i  you  not  remem- 
ber whether  or 
not 

do  you  recollect 


do  you  recollect 
whether 


do  you  recollect 
whether  there 
was 

do  you  recollect 
whether  there 
were 

do  you  remember 


do  you  remember 
whether 


do  you  remember 
whether  or  not 


do  you  reside 


4 


first  instance 
first  place 
first  thing- 
first  time 
for  instance 
for  the  defendant 
for  the  plaintiff 
for  the  purpose 


for  the  purpose  of. 
sustaining 


for  the  sake 


entirely  imma- 
terial 


examination    in 
chief 


excepted  to 


for  this  action 


for  this  court 


execute  and   ac- 
knowledge 


from  the  evidence 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


81 


* 

further  ordered, 
adjudged  and 
decreed 

gentlemen  of  the 
jury 

*4  _           have  you  not 
^/             have  you  seen 

^T 

give  your  name  to 
the  jury 

/               having  been 

~—*^- 

go  ahead  and  state 

^-""~"~           he  said  to  me 

^~_ 

great  deal 

&•  —  ~~~         he  says  to  me 

.  —  <  —  •  — 

—  o    great  many 

£*S            he  wasn't 

"T4 

Grand  jury 

g^S"'          he  wasn't  there 

*r 

had  been 

c^          he  was  quite 

<*£- 

had  been  done 

S*f             he  would  be 

&  ( 

had  there  been 

0f            he  would  not  be 

J 

have  been 

^r>^            how  did  you 

2 

have  there 

&-**^y        how  did  you  do 

2 

have  you 

f^^^^^1'    how  did  you  do 

that 

2. 

have  you  any 

<£7>T  —  es-»--    how  did  you  make 
it 

2s 

have  you  any 
doubt 

tf~n~1'          how  do  you  know 

2, 

have  you  anything 

^y^-a  how  do  you  re- 
member 

have  you  been 


how  far 


82 


2. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


how  far  away 


I  cannot  recollect 


cr\  —  ~y 


how  long  have 


how  long  have  you 
been 


how  long  have  you 
known 


I  cannot  recollect 
whether  or  not 


I  cannot  remem- 
lii'i-  whether  or 
not 

I  cannot  say 
whether  or  not 


how  long  have  you  <s^~i-x~ 
known  her 

how  long  have  you  ^— -S 
known  him 


I  cannot  tell 

whether  or  not 

I  could  not  say 


how  long  have  you 
lived 


how  many  years 


how  many  years 
ago 

how  much 


0 


I  could  not  swear 
I  decline  to  say 
I  do  not  believe 
I  do  not  know 


human  being 


I  am  not 


I  believe  (pro- 
noun)  was 


I  believe  there  was 


() 


I  do  not  know 
anything 

I  do  not  know 
whether 


I  do  not  know 
whether  or  not 


I  do  not  recollect 


I  call  your  atten- 
tion 


I  do  not  recollect 
whether  or  not 


•7 


I  call  your  atten- 
tion  to  the  fact 


I  cannot  be 


(j 


I  do  not  remem- 
ber 


I  do  not  think  (dot 
omitted  in 
think) 


-2, 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


83 


I  have  carefully 
considered 


I  have  carefully 
gone  over 

I  have  no  recollec- 
tion 


I   was   not  there 


I  was  there 


I  will  ask  you 


I  said  to  him 


I  will  call  your  at- 
tention 


I  says  to  him 


I  will  not 


I  suppose 


I  will  not  be 


I  think  it  was 


I  think  they  are 
able 


I  think  they  do  not 


I    think    it    would 
be  worth 

I  understand  you 
to  say 

I  understood  you 
to  say 

I  want  to  know 


I  will  not  ba  sure 


I  will  state  to  the 
/  Jury 

I  will  swear 


I  would  not  be 
positive 


I  would  not  swear 


I  would  not  swear 
positively 

I  would  therefore 


I  want  to  know 
the  facts 


I  want  to  state  to 
the  Jury 

I  was 


if  from  all  the  evi- 
dence 


if  from  all  tha  evi- 
dence 


if  it  is 


I  was  not 


if  it  is  said 


84 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


L. 


if  it  please  the 
Court 


if  it  please  your 
Honor 


if  you  are  satisfied 


i:i  order  to  know 


in  order  to  learn 


in  order  to  see 


£ 


if  you  come  to  the 
conclusion 


if  you  find 


if  your  Honor 
please 


If  you  know 
whether  or  not 


if  vou  should 
find 


in  addition 


in  addition  to  this 
testimony 


in   addition   to   the 
testimony 


in  order  to  under- 
stand 


in  our  opinion 
in  regard 


in  rog-nrd  to  the 
matter 


in  rc-pnrd  to  such 
tilings 


in  respect 

in  respect  to  this 

in    such   a    manner 


In  addition  to  the 

in  such  a  way 

fact 

/ 

in  consideration 

-^T 

in  that  neighbor- 

C, 

hood 

in  favor 

-/ 

instructs  the  jury 

in  his  favor 

~2-  .—4 

y         Instrument  of 

writing 

X 

in  his  own  behalf 

insurance  com- 

^ 

pany 

in  order  to  judge 

2 

in  the  first  place 

f 

THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


85 


in  the  next  place 


in  the  morning 


in  this  action 


in  this  case 


in  this  court 


in  this  indictment 


in  this  manner 


in  this  suit 


introduced  in  evi- 
dence 


in  what  way 


in  years  gone  by 


in  your  direct  tes- 
timony 


in  your  judgment 


in  your  store 


interlocutory  de- 
cree 


Is  as 


f 


is  it  not  a  fact 

is  it  or  not  a  fact 

isn't  it  a  fact 

is  there 

is  there  any 

is  there  anything 


is  there  anything 
more 


is  there  not 


it  has  been 


it  has  been  done 


it  is  denied 
-<*  it  is  for  you  to  sayi 


it  is  for  you  to 
say  whether  or 
not 

it  isn't 


it  isn't  necessary 


it  isn't  there 


is  It  a  fact 


It  is  said 


86 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


-*-r 


it  seems  that  the 
plaintiff 

it  wasn't 

it  wasn't  neces- 
sary 

it  wasn't  there 
it  would  be 
it  would  have  been 
it  would  not  be 
joint  stock 

joint  stock  com- 
pany 

judgment  at- 
tachment and 
execution 

just  as 

just -as  quick  as 
just  as  quickly  as 
just  as  soon  as 
just  as  well 
just  at  that  time 


just  in  that 
just  now 
just  state 
larger  than 


learned  counsel 
for  the  defend- 
ant 

learned  counsel 
for  the  plaintiff 


learned  counsel 
for  the  prisoner 


letters  testamen- 

tary 


longer  than 


many  years  ago 


market  price 


market  value 


Master  in  Chan- 
cery 


may  it  please  the 
Court 


may  it  please 
your  Honor 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


87 


measure  of  clam- 
ages 


month  or  two 


month  or  two  ago 


mother-in-law 


no  sir,  I  do  not 
Notary  Public 
nothing  else 
nothing  like 


Municipal  Court 


murder  in  the  first 
degree 


murder  in  the  sec- 
ond degree 


mv  recollection  is 
that 


near  him 
next  day 
next  day  or  so 
next  day  or  two 
next  of  kin 
next  place 
night  time 
no  doubt 


/ 


notwithstanding 
the  fact 


now  and  then 


objected  to  by  the- 
counsel 


objected  to  bjy  the 
defendant 


objected  to  by  the 
plaintiff 


objectedto  by 
counsel  for  the 
defendant 

objected  to  by 
counsel  for  the 
plaintiff 

objection  over- 
ruled 


objection  sus- 
tained 


of  all  and  every 


offer  in  evidence 


no  sir 


once  in  awhile 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


7 


7 


on  my  part 


on  my  own  part 


on  or  about  the 


on  the  contrary 


on  the  day  and 
year 

on  the  day  and 
year  aforesaid 


on  the  other  side 


on  the  part  of  the 
defendant 


on  the  part  of  the 
plaintiff 


on  that  occasion 
on  this  occasion 
on  that  question 
on  this  question 
ought  to  have  been 
our  own  business 


over  and  over 
again 


f 


(I 


7 


owing  to  the  fact 


peace  and  good  be- 
havior 


place  of  business 
plaintiff's  case 
plaintiff's  counsel 

plaintiff's    testi- 
mony 

point  of  order 
post  office 


Pow3r  of  Attor- 
ney 

prior  to  that  time 


prisoner  at  tho 
bar 


purchase  money 
question  at  issue 
question  of  fact 
question  of  law 


recross  examina- 
tion 


redirect  examina- 
tion 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


89 


reasonable  doubt 


.render  a  verdict  in 
favor  of  the  de- 
fendant 

render  a  verdict  in 
favor  of  the 
plaintiff 

right  of  way 


said  and  done 


4 

S 

"^ 


so  far  as  I  recol- 
lect 


so  many 


so  many  times 
(  so  to  speak 


somehow  or  other 


seal  an  exception 


seal  an  exception 
for  the  defend- 
ant 


second  place 


self-defense 


set  forth 


she  would  be 


should  be 


should  not  be 


signed,  sealed  and 
delivered 


sister-in-law 


someone  else 
something  else 
something  like 


something  or 
other 


something  to  that 
effect 


someway  or  othe,r 
somewhere    else 


somew^here  or 
other 


sooner  or  later 


state  that  again 


state  that  again 
please 


state  to  the  jury 


THE     GREGG     REPORT E R 


z 


f 


.state  what  you  did 


state  whether  or 
not 


stato  whether 
there 


state  whether 
there  was 


state  whether 
there  were 


Supreme  Court 


sworn  and  ex- 
amined 


tell  the  jury 


tell  the  jury 
whether  or  not 


tell  me 


tell  what  you  did 


testimony  of  the 
defendant 


testimony  of  the 
plaintiff 


that  day 


that  he  was 


that  is  the  way 

that  is  to  say 

that  it  has 

that  it  was 

that  the  defendant 

that  the  plaintiff 

that  will 

that  will  be 

then  the  defendant 

then  the  plaintiff 

there  are 

there  does  not 

there  have  been 

there  is 

there  isn't 


that  is  something 


there  isn't  any 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


91 


there  might  have 
been 


there  must  be 


there  was 


there  wasn't 


there  wasn't  any 


there  were 


there  were  many 


there  were  not 


there  were  so 
many 


there  will 


there  will  be 


there  would 


? 


there  would  not 


they  are  able  to 


there  are  not 


they  did 


they  do  not  cor- 
roborate 


they  have  been 
they  have  not 
they  have  not  been 


they  have  not  been 
able 


they  ought  to 
have 


they  ought  to 
have  been 


they  ought  to 
have  seen 


they  were 
they  were  not 
they  were  there 
they  would  have 


they  would  have 
been 


they  would  have 
no 

this  action 


this  case 


92 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


this  date 


this  day 


this  Is  an  action 


this  is  a  case 


this  is  a  matter 


this  is  a  well- 
known  fact 


this  morning 
this  time 


to  my  recollection 


to  the  best  of 
(pronoun) 
knowledge 

to  the  best  of 

(pronoun)  mem- 
ory 

to  the  best  of 
(pronoun)  rec- 
ollection 


to-wit 


trade  mark 


time  and  time 
again 


United  States 


time  of  day 


to  a  certain  ex- 
tent 


United  States  of 
America 


up  to  that  tim« 


to  a  great  extent 


up  to  the  time 


X* 


to  a  large  extent 


to  a  limited  ex- 
tent 


to  do  so 


to  do  that 


to  do  this 


verdict  for  the  de- 
fendant 


verdict  for  the 
plaintiff 


verdict  of  the 
jury 


was  he 


was  he  not 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


93 


fe 

was  he  there 

"td^^         was  there  nothing 

g— 

was  it  not 

21  f  ways  and  means 

«>> 

wasn't  he 

<^              we  find 

^ 

wasn't  he  there 

9 

•^                we  have 

i>^ 

wasn't  the  de- 
fendant 

=^_P           we  regard 

iM- 

wasn't  the  plain- 
tiff 

°2—  &       •      we  regret 

r" 

was  said 

^^^          we  want 

»- 

was  that 

*    '             week  by  week 

ty  —  • 

^  —  * 

was  that  meeting 

**~)             week  or  so 

£- 

was  the 

<T~~T'                week  or  ten  days 

e, 

was  there 

^    ^""^          week  or  two 

^Xy^* 
/ 

•was  there  any- 
body 

ff  —  K^*"     r~^  \veek  or  two  ago 

^~ 

was  there  any- 
one 

<^f           weight  of  the 
s/                  evidence 

^ 

was  there  any- 
thing 

•^  —  ^^  —       well-known 

«~_ 

was  there  any- 
thing  else 

'  ^3^7     well-known  fact 

was  there  any- 
thing more 

<y^                were  it  not 

t^- 

was  there  not 

i                  were  not 

THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


tsfe 

r 


-'              were  there 

rwhat  is  your  name 
and  business 

^             were  you  aware 

^'^               what  is  your  oc- 
cupation 

were  you  aware  of 
-7                 the  fact 

,^__^               what  is  your  recol- 
lection 

•»              what  are  you 

<^~^                 what  time  of  day 

-^-^**     what  are  you  go- 
ing to  do 

^^"^                 what  time  of  night 

**** 

\vhat  did  you  do 

<^^^~^c'          what  time  was 
that 

^3 

G*          what  did  you  find 

f^*~7f             what  took  place 

what  do  you 

e^*f'                 what  was  done 

what  do  you  mean 

^^T                what  was  said 

what  do  you  mean 
5            by  saying 

c^~&~              what  was  the 

__^o       what  do  you  mean 
by  that 

c^—*            what  were  you 

what  do  you  want 

tz^Z.^-*^!         what  ware  you  do- 
ing 

what  is  your 

(^e^t^z.        what  were  you  do- 
ing there 

what  is  your  age 

cs12-**  *^^     what  were  you  go- 
ing to  do 

what  is  your  busi- 
ness 

f.^—^0          what  year  was 
that 

what  is  your  full 
name 

tf-*                when  did  you 

,               what  is  your  name 

when  did  you  ad- 
e"~7                   vise 

THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


95 


when  did  you  do 


when  did  you  meet 
him 


when  did  you  do 
so 


when  did  you  read 


when  did  you  do 
that 


when  did  you 
regard 


when  did  you  en- 
close 


when  did  you  re- 
member 


when  did  you  find 


when  did  you  re- 
ply 


«»—  -j> 


when  did  you  first 


when  did  you  re- 
ply to  the  letter 


when  did  you  first 
make 


w^hen  did  you  first 
meet 


when  did  you  first 
meet  him 


when  did  you  first 
see  him 


when  did  you  g-ive 


<=•—  7 


when  did  you  say 


when  did  you  say 
it  was 


when  did  you  see 


-when  did  you  go 


when  did  you  tell 
him 


when  did  you  in- 
quire 


when  did  you  tell 
him  that 


-when  did  you  let 


when  did  you  try 


when  did  you  let 
me  know 


when  did  you 
work 


when  did  you 
write 


when  did  you  meet 


when  was  that 


96 


\vlu-n  were  you 


whore  was  the 


when  you  came 


where-  w«-re  you 


when  you  next 


when  you  told 
him 


when  you  told  us 


where  did 


where  did 
you 

where  did  you 
go 


where  did  you 
leave  him 


where  did  you  see 


where  did  you  see 
him 


where  do  you  re- 
side 


where  it  is 


where  it  was 


where-  were  you 
going 


which  is  the  way 
which  of  them 
which  one 


which  way  did  you 
g-o 

which  would  be 


which  you  have 
why  in  the  world 
will  there  not  be 


will  you  please 
five 


-  will  you  please 

— ~(  state 


will  you  please 
state  whether  or 
not 

will  you  state 


where  it  would 


will  you  state  to 
the  jury 


where  was 


will  you  state 
whether  or  not 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


97 


will  you  swear 


you  are  aware 


•Xs- 


will  you  swear 
positively 


will  you    tell 


-vill  you  tell  the 
jury 

will  you  tell  us 


would  not  be 
certain 


would  not  be 
positive 

would  not  say 


would  not  swear 
year  or  so 
year  or  two 
year  or  two  ago 
years  of  age 
years  old 
yes  or  no 
yes  sir 


—  Sf       yes  sir,  I  did  for 
<^  '  a  fact 


2 

r 

7 


r 


you  are  aware  of 
the  fact 


you  are  sure 


you  have 


you  have  been 


you  have  not 


you  ought  to  be 


you  ought  to  have 


you  must  de- 
termine 
whether  or  not 

you  will  be 
governed 


you  will  find 


you  will  not 


you  will  not  say 


you  will  re- 
member 


•  you  will  re- 
member that 


you  will  swear 


you  will  swear 
positively 


Court  Testimony— Exercise  on  Phrases 


; 


^ 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


99 


ts£y 

r 


7/ 

<^—r         c: 


<^~  C  _  x- 


C 


KX) 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER 


e- 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  101 


102 


T  H  I-      C  K  I-  G  G     REPOR  T  I-  R> 


Testimony  in  Life  Insurance  Investigation 


y 


304  T  II  E     G  R  E  G  G     R  1-  I'  O  R  7  /•  A' 


eS 


y 


2 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  105 


<^l£^> 


-O^-r 


r 


106  T  I!  1-      (.  A'  E  G  G      R  /•  /'  O  R  T  E  R 


(      — • — e5>— 
£- — v-£7> 


Key  to  Plates 

Court  Testimony 


Q.      Do  you  know  the  plaintiff?     A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  How  long  have  you  been  acquainted  with  him?  A. 
Two  or  three  years. 

Q.  Where  did  you  first  see  him?  A.  At  Denison's,  in 
August. 

Q.  State  whether  or  not  you  saw  him  at  the  time  you 
mention.  A.  Yes,  sir,  I  did. 

Q.  Do  you  remember  whether  or  not  there  were  other 
members  of  the  organization  there  at  that  time?  A.  I  do  not 
know  whether  there  was  or  not. 

Q.  What  took  place  at  that  time?  A.  As  near  as  I  can 
judge,  nothing  was  done. 

Q.  Can  you  tell  whether  or  not  any  definite  action  was 
taken  in  regard  to  the  merging  of  your  companies  at  this  time? 
A.  I  do  not  remember;  I  do  not  believe  there  was. 

Q.      Tell  what  you  did.     A.     I  took  notes. 

Q.  What  do  you  mean  by  that?  A.  Well,  I  was  to  make 
a  full  report. 

Q.      Did  you  make  it?     A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.      Have  you  got  it?     A.     No,  sir. 

Q.  To  whom  did  you  turn  it  over?  A.  I  do  not  recollect; 
to  Mr.  Denton,  I  believe. 

Q.  Now  I  will  ask  you  to  state  whether  or  not  you  turned 
the  report  over  to  Mr.  Denton  at  that  time?  A.  Yes,  sir,  I  did. 

That  is  all. 

Charles  Harmon,  called  on  the  part  of  the  plaintiff,  testi- 
fied as  follows: 

Direct  examination  by  Mr.  Martin: 
Q.      What  is  your  name?     A.     Charles  Harmon. 
Q.      Where  do  you  reside?     A.     19  Burton  Place. 
Q.      What  is  your  age?     A.     52. 


108  T  II  E     G  R  E  G  G     REPORTER 

Q.  What  is  your  business?  A.  Manufacturer  of  auto- 
mobiles. 

Q.  Where  is  your  place  of  business?  A.  710  Manhattan 
Building. 

Q.      Do  you  know  the  plaintiff  in  this  case?     A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  How  long  have  you  known  him?  A.  As  near  as  I  can 
recollect,  about  five  years. 

Q.  Where  did  you  first  meet  him?  A.  At  a  meeting  held 
at  Denison's  some  years  ago;  in  August,  I  believe. 

Q.  Had  not  a  temporary  organization  already  been  per- 
fected before  this  meeting  that  you  speak  of  took  place?  A. 
Yes,  sir. 

Q.      You  were  present?     A.     Yes,  sir,  I  was. 

Q.  What  was  the  object  of  that  meeting?  A.  Well, 
there  had  been  some  talk  of  an  agreement  among  the  manu- 
facturers of  automobiles. 

Q.  Was  that  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  forming  an 
organization?  A.  I  believe  it  was. 

Q.  Will  you  state  to  the  jury  just  what  was  done  at  that 
time?  A.  As  near  as  I  can  remember,  it  was  adjourned. 

Q.      \Vho  presided?     A.     Mr.  E.  S.  Denton. 

Q.  Will  you  tell  us  who  was  present  besides  yourself  and 
the  plaintiff?  A.  I  cannot  remember. 

Q.      Was  Mr.  Ramsey  there?     A.     I  do  not  remember. 

Q.      Was  Mr.  Shaw  there?     A.     I  believe  he  was. 

Q.  Was  Mr.  Madden  there?  A.  I  do  not  know  whether 
he  was  or  not. 

Q.      Was  he  there?     A.     I  do  not  know;  I  do  not  remember. 

Q.  Can  you  remember  the  names  of  other  persons  present? 
A.  No,  sir;  I  cannot. 

Q.  What  was  the  sense  of  that  meeting?  A.  As  far  as 
I  know,  nothing  was  accomplished. 

Q.      You  state  this  meeting  was  adjourned?     A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  When  it  was  called  again  were  you  present?  A.  I 
cannot  remember  whether  or  not  the  adjourned  meeting  was 
ever  held. 

Q.  When  was  the  last  time  you  saw  Mr.  Denton?  A. 
Day  before  yesterday. 

Q.  Did  you  have  any  conversation  with  him  at  that  time? 
A.  Yes,  sir. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  109 

Q.  Will  you  tell  just  what  was  said?  A.  Nothing  in 
regard  to  this  movement  for  an  organization. 

Q.      Give  the  details  of  that  conversation. 

Objected  to.     Objection  sustained. 

Q.  Did  you  at  any  time  have  a  conversation  with  Mr. 
Denton  about  this  adjourned  meeting?  A.  No,  sir;  I  did  not. 

Q.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  were  you  and  Mr.  Denton 
not  the  prime  movers  in  this  organization  scheme? 

Objected  to.     Objection  sustained. 

Q.  Did  Mr.  Denton  ever  approach  you  with  this  organiza- 
tion scheme?  A.  It  might  have  been  brought  to  my  attention 
by  him.  I  am  not  sure. 

Q.  Let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Denton 
in  his  testimony  stated  that  you  and  he  had  entered  into  some 
kind  of  an  agreement;  will  you  state  what  that  was?  A.  Yes, 
sir;  that  was  some  time  ago;  my  memory  is  not  very  clear 
on  it. 

Q.  Did  you  have  an  agreement?  A.  We  intended  to 
organize  the  manufacturers;  I  do  not  remember  an  agreement. 

Q.  Answer  the  question.  A.  I  do  not  know;  there  might 
have  been. 

Q.  Will  you  state  to  the  jury  whether  or  not  any  such 
agreement  existed  between  you  and  Mr.  Denton?  A.  I  do 
not  know  whether  there  was  or  not.  I  do  not  know — perhaps. 

Objected  to. 

The  Court:      He  says  he  does  not  know. 

Q.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  did  you  and  Mr.  Denton  not 
get  together  on  this  question  about  the  first  of  April  in  the 
office  of  Mr.  E.  B.  Oden's  Manufacturing  Company?  A.  No, 
sir. 


Testimony  In  Life  Insurance  Investigation 


Q.  You  said  he  (Harriman)  told  you  that  you  would  not 
be  able  to  carry  out  your  plan  against  his  opposition — what 
opposition  did  he  say  he  would  give?  A.  He  said  his  whole 
influence  would  be  against  me. 

Q.  Did  he  say  his  political  influence  would  be  used  against 
you?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  Did  he  refer  to  the  Legislature?  A.  He  referred  to 
probable  legislative  action.  He  said  that  the  Legislature  would 
probably  take  action. 

Q.  Did  he  say  whether  it  would  be  in  the  form  of  legis- 
lative investigation?  A.  My  recollection  is  that  he  said  "  legis- 
lative action — some  legislative  action." 

Q.  Can  you  state  the  substance  of  what  he  said?  How  did 
he  put  that  with  regard  to  legislative  action?  A.  I  think  that 
he  said  that  legislative  action  would  probably  result  through 
his  influence,  either  for  or  against  my  plans. 

Q.  Did  he  tell  you  that  if  you  acceded  to  his  request  his 
influence  would  be  thrown  in  your  favor?  A.  That  was  plain. 

Q.  Did  he  tell  you  that  if  you  did  not  divide  the  control 
with  him  his  influence  would  be  thrown  against  you?  A.  Yes, 
that  his  whole  influence  would  be  against  me. 

Q.  And  that  there  would  probably  be  legislative  action? 
A.  Yes. 

Q.  Did  he  refer  to  the  political  influence  that  he  would 
exert  at  the  interview  at  which  Mr.  Root  and  Mr.  Cravath  were 
present?  A.  My  recollection  is  that  he  did. 

Q.  He  told  you  that  his  influence  was  important,  and  you 
understood  that  in  refusing  to  bring  about  his  wishes  you  were 
taking  chances,  and  with  that  understanding  did  you  refuse? 
A.  Yes. 

Q.  And  you  told  him  the  management  of  the  Equitable 
would  be  entirely  independent?  A.  Independent  of  him  and 
everybody  else. 

Q.     You  are  sure  you  told  him  this?     A.     I  am  sure. 

Q.  Why  were  you  not  willing  to  have  Mr.  Harriman  name 
two  trustees  to  go  in  with  those  named  by  you,  as  that  would 
have  been  a  majority?  A.  That  Is  true,  but  I  was  determined 
to  try  to  carry  out  the  plans  I  have  formed. 


THE     GREGG     REPORTER  111 

Q.  When  did  you  purchase  the  Hyde  stock?  A.  On  Fri- 
day— I  believe  it  was  June  9,  1905. 

Q.  And  when  did  you  have  the  first  conference  with  Mr. 
Harriman?  A.  I  believe  it  was  the  next  day,  Saturday;  but 
it  was  not  until  the  next  conference,  on  Monday,  that  Mr. 
Root  and  Mr.  Cravath  were  present. 

Q.  What  did  Mr.  Harriman  say?  A.  He  said  he  thought 
he  ought  to  be  allowed  to  share  in  the  stock  and  have  an  equal 
voice  with  mine  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  Equit- 
able. 

Q.  What  did  you  say?  A.  I  declined.  He  then  said  that 
if  I  allowed  him  to  share  the  stock  and  to  name  two  trustees 
to  act  with  my  three  he  would  assent.  He  said  he  did  not 
think  I  could  carry  out  my  plan  without  his  aid. 

Q.  What  was  your  reply?  A.  I  said  that  in  the  interest 
of  the  policy  holders  and  of  the  public  in  general  I  would  be 
glad  to  have  Mr.  Harriman's  co-operation  and  that  of  any  other 
man  situated  like  him.  But  I  told  him  I  regretted  that  I  could 
not  comply  with  his  request;  I  could  not  give  up  my  intention 
of  holding  the  stock.  I  told  him  I  was  going  to  carry,  or  try 
to  carry,  out  my  plan  as  I  had  mapped  it  out. 

Q.  Did  you  have  any  further  interview?  A.  No,  I  did 
not.  I  told  him  over  the  telephone  there  was  no  use  of  talking 
about  the  matter,  that  I  would  not  change  my  mind,  and  that 
ended  it. 

Q.  In  that  telephone  interview  did  he  repeat  anything 
about  the  consequences  of  your  refusal?  A.  Not  that  I  re- 
member. 

Q.  I  asked  you  on  Friday  this  further  question:  "  Did 
Mr.  Harriman  say  there  would  be  any  result  injurious  to  your 
interests  in  case  you  refused  to  permit  him  to  share  in  the 
ownership?  "  A.  Mr.  Harriman  said  that  his  active  influence, 
including  his  political  influence,  would  be  against  me. 


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